THE 


John  M.  Webb 
Library 


Presented  to 

TRINITY  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

By  Mrs.  John  M.  Webb 


1917 


https://archive.org/details/happinessasfound01flet 


f 


■ 


HAPPINESS 


HORACE  FLETCHER’S  WORKS 


MENTICULTURE 

or,  The  A-B-C  of  True  Living.  Thirty- 
fourth  thousand,  280  pp.,  $1.00. 

HAPPINESS 

as  found  in  Forethought  minus  Fear- 
thought.  Sixth  thousand,  251  pp.,  $1.00. 

THAT  LAST  WAIF,  or 

SOCIAL  QUARANTINE 

270  pp.,  #1.50. 

WHAT  SENSE  ? or 

ECONOMIC  NUTRITION 
128  pp.,  75c. 

TEACHERS’  MISSIONARY  EDITION 
of  above,  Paper,  Special  Price 


Published  by 

HERBERT  S.  STONE  & CO. 
Chicago  and  New  York 


HAPPINESS 

* * 

AS  FOUND  IN 

Forethought  minus  F earthought 


HORACE  FLETCHER 

¥ 

MENTICULTURE  SERIES  II 

¥ 


^ % 5 / 

HERBERT  S.  STONE  fcf  CO. 
CHICAGO  & NEW  YORK 
MDCCCCI 


COPYRIGHT,  1898,  BY 
H O RACE  FLETCHER 


CONTENTS. 


i 


oieas*  J I 

iP  ! <j 


Introduction, 7 

Hypothesis, 29 

Theory, 38 

Prefatory  Definitions,  43 

The  Value  of  Simile,  - - - * 63 

Analysis  of  Fear,  ....  69 

Baleful  Effects  of  Fear,  - - - 78 

How  to  Eliminate  Fear,  89 

How  to  Cure  Special  Forms  of  Fear,  ioo 

The  Now -Field, 109 

Pertinent  Pages,  - - - - 117 

Stop  Importing,  or,  Eradication  versus 

Repression, 145 

The  Impotence  of  Pain,  - - - 153 

Unhappy  Unless  Miserable,  ...  160 
Thou  Shalt  Not  Strike  a Woman,  - 169 

The  Point-of-View,  - - - - 177 

Don ’t  Be  a Sewer,  - 187 

Call  Suspicion  a Liar,  - - - - 190 

I Can’t  Not  Do  It,  - - - - 192 

A Million  to  One  on  the  Unexpected,  198 
Love  Cannot  be  Qualified,  - - - 203 

Last  Sometimes  First,  - - - 21 1 

A Beginning  and  Not  an  End,  - - 217 

Appendix  A — Dr.  Wm.  H.  Holcomb,  223 
Appendix  B — George  Kennan,  - 242 


PREFACE 

TO 

SIXTH  THOUSAND 

QUARANTINE  EDITION 

“ Happiness”  was  written  in  answer 
to  many  questions  elicited  by  the  pub- 
lication of  “ Menticulture.” 

The  “Introduction”  is  not  material 
to  the  subject  except  to  show  the  sources 
of  the  suggestions  relative  to  profitable 
living  contained  in  the  two  books. 

The  vital  truths  underlying  the  phi- 
losophy of  life  can  be  intelligently  stated 
in  a few  hundred  words,  both  as  regards 
the  proper  cultivation  of  the  body,  or 
physical  equipment,  and  as  regards  the 
cultivation  of  the  mind,  so  that  they  may 
do  the  best  work  of  which  they  are  capa- 
ble. False  example  and  false  teaching, 


2 


PREFACE 


however,  have  so  impressed  habits  of 
weakness  on  the  body  and  the  mind 
that  the  chief  aim  of  curative  suggestion 
should  be  to  disabuse.  That  is,  to  cause 
people  to  discard  bad  habits  of  thinking 
and  doing  in  order  that  normal,  healthy 
tendencies  of  action  and  of  thought 
may  take  their  place. 

The  difficulty  of  the  task  undertaken 
by  any  student  and  advocate  of  reform 
is  not  the  intelligent  statement  of  the 
simple  truth,  but  the  discovery  and  refu- 
tation of  a complication  of  errors  which 
have  assumed  the  reality  of  truth.  Sim- 
ile and  illustration,  some  logic  and  much 
ridicule,  are  among  the  weapons  that 
have  been  effective  in  combating  old 
habits  of  wrong  thinking,  but  it  is  im- 
possible to  say  which  argument  will  fit 
a particular  case. 

Each  of  the  illustrations  used  in  this 
book  has  been  the  means  of  curing 


PREFACE 


3 


some  one  person  of  some  phase  of  fear- 
thought,  and  together  . they  have  re- 
leased many  from  that  dread  enemy  of 
health  and  happiness  called  “Fear.” 
,The  normal  condition  of  Nature  is 
healthy  growth — evolution  or  progres- 
sion— and  Man’s  chief  function  in  assist- 
ing her  is  first  the  removal  of  weeds, 
or  other  deterrents  to  the  natural  pro- 
cess, and  afterwards  the  maintaining  of 
quarantine  against  their  return. 

True  Happiness  is  the  Evidence  and 
Fruit  of  Conscious  Usefulness. 

{ The  wider  the  opportunity  for  use- 
fulness the  greater  and  keener  the  hap- 
piness resulting  therefrom'.  Conscious- 
ness of  being  one’s  best  and  doing  one’s 
best,  however,  regardless  of  scope,  is 
the  only  way  to  unalloyed  happiness, 
and  to  the  accomplishment  of  the 
highest  ideals.  There  can  be  no  more 


4 


PREFACE 


miserable,  sorry  and  harrowing  condi- 
tion than  that  called  “Indifference.” 
The  separating  of  fearthought  from 
forethought  is  not  alone  valuable  be- 
cause of  the  personal  comfort  of  being 
fearless,  but  it  is  especially  useful  in 
that  the  energy  made  possible  by  the 
divorce  is  available  in  assisting  others 
to  be  strong  and  helpful  to  themselves 
and  to  each  other. 

If  attention  is  once  directed  to  the 
pulling  of  weeds,  to  the  removal  of  de- 
terrents, to  the  eradication  of  the  germs 
of  disorder,  the  pursuit  will  become 
most  fascinating,  owing  to  the  quick 
and  happy  response  of  Nature  in  her 
willingness  to  “Do  the  rest.” 

One  of  the  marvels  revealed  by 
study  of  the  question  of  the  possibility 
of  a Perfect  Social  Quarantine,  having 
for  its  aim  a protection  that  will  not 
permit  any  child  to  escape  care , is  the 


PREFACE 


5 


comparatively  small  areas  of  the  prop- 
agating centers  in  which  are  bred  the 
germs  of  social  disorder. 

This  subject  is  treated  in  a book, 
now  in  press,  called  “That  Last  Waif; 
or,  Social  Quarantine.” 

The  same  insignificance  of  origin 
applies  to  individual,  moral  and  physi- 
cal deterrents  to  happiness  which  afflict 
otherwise  healthy  men  and  women. 
The  tap-roots  of  all  unhappiness  are 
not  formidable  in  the  light  of  present 
knowledge. 

Whoever  is  less  than  keenly  happy 
is  the  victim  of  errors  or  illusions  whose 
germs  are  easy  to  kill  when  found. 
It  is  the  especial  object  of  this  book  to 
help  those  who  are  suffering  unhappi- 
ness to  find  the  tap-roots  of  their 
troubles. 

Auditorium  Annex, 

Chicago,  September  5th,  1898. 


HAPPINESS 

AS  FOUND  IN 

FORE  MINUS  FEAR 
THOUGHT. 

INTRODUCTION. 

How  to  be  happy  is  the  one  desire 
common  to  all  humanity. 

How  to  be  happier  is  a better  state- 
ment, for  there  is  no  one  so  miserable 
but  has  some  degree  of  happiness  at 
times  — enjoys  some  moments  when  he 
forgets  to  be  unhappy,  and  looks  with 
appreciation,  even  if  with  only  dull 
and  bleared  appreciation,  upon  the 
things  that  are  always  beautiful  and 
joyful  and  free. 

In  highly  civilized  life  there  is  every- 
thing to  encourage,  and  there  should 
be  nothing  to  prevent,  happiness. 

The  normal  condition  of  man  in  civ- 
ilized life  is  that  of  happiness. 

So  great,  and  so  greatly  increasing, 
has  been  the  acceleration  of  progress, 

7 


8 


HAPPINESS. 


that  the  possibility  of  unrestrained  and 
unfettered  happiness  has  come  to  us  in 
advance  of  our  being  prepared  to  ac- 
cept the  freedom  of  it,  owing,  mainly, 
no  doubt,  to  the  weight  of  traditions 
under  the  habit  of  which  we  are  prone 
to  struggle  long  after  the  conditions 
that  gave  birth  to  the  traditions  have 
ceased  to  exist. 

The  experience  of  the  world  has 
revealed,  and  is  constantly  revealing, 
simple  expedients  applicable  to  every 
possible  combination  of  evils  — except 
the  evil  of  perverse  ignorance  — the 
use  of  which  will  insure  the  success  of 
honest  and  reasonable  aims,  no  matter 
how  unfavorable  the  equipment  and 
environment  have  been  or  are  at  the 
present  time. 

In  a singularly  adventurous  career  I 
have  passed  through  many  of  the  con- 
ditions in  which  discomfort,  fear  and 
unhappiness  breed,  including  the  direst 
straits  to  which  life  can  be  exposed, 
and  have  also  been  possessed,  at  dif- 


INTRODUCTION. 


9 


ferent  times,  of  the  means  to  comfort 
and  happiness  that  broad  opportunity, 
keen  appreciation  and  affluence  are 
supposed  to  furnish. 

I have  shared  the  occupations  and 
sympathies  of  persons  of  many  differ- 
ent nationalities  and  of  every  degree 
of  opportunity  and  intelligence;  in 
torrid,  temperate  and  frigid  climes;  in 
the  Americas,  in  Africa,  in  Europe,  in 
Asia,  and  in  the  far-off  islands  of  dis- 
tant seas;  on  shipboard  and  on  the 
farm;  in  the  mine  and  in  the  factory; 
in  the  camp  and  on  the  commons;  in 
the^arts  of  war  and  in  the  pursuits  of 
peace ; in  the  country  cross-roads  school- 
house  and  in  the  university;  in  service 
and  in  command  — in  all  of  which 
change  it  was  possible  only  to  serve 
apprenticeships,  however,  for  in  such 
variety  of  occupation  no  great  accom- 
plishment could  develop,  except  the 
accomplishment  of  variety  itself;  but, 
at  the  same  time,  it  was  not  possible 
for  any  of  the  occupations  to  become 


IO 


HAPPINESS. 


stale  to  criticism,  and  the  ability  to 
analyze,  in  the  light  of  comparison,  is 
the  natural  result  and  the  impelling 
motive  in  these  essays. 

I have  pushed  ways  through  tangled 
chaparral,  led  by  hopes  of  discovering 
precious  metals;  and  have  chopped  out 
roads  in  the  jungle,  allured  by  the  ex- 
citement of  the  chase  and  the  spirit  of 
adventure.  I have  observed  nature  in 
the  vastness  of  her  wild  domains;  in 
the  calm  and  in  the  terror  of  the 
mighty  deep;  in  the  harmonious  quiet 
of  rural  cultivation,  and  in  the  supreme 
picturesqueness  of  rugged  mountain 
landscapes,  studded  about,  here  and 
there,  with  golden-roofed  temples  and 
cloistered  parks.  I have  not  only  seen 
nature  with  appreciative  eye  when  she 
has  displayed  her  million  moods  and 
when  she  has  taken  on  myriad  aspects, 
but  I have  tried  to  interpret  her  in 
terms  of  line  and  color  in  famous  stu- 
dios in  Europe,  under  the  advice  of 
world-honored  masters  of  the  art. 


INTRODUCTION. 


II 

The  numerous  occupations  engaged 
in  were,  in  many  cases,  used  as  neces- 
sary means  to  desired  ends.  While  I 
have  enjoyed  making  le  grand toiir  as  a 
“ globe  trotter,”  I have  also  had  to 
“work  my  way”  at  times,  and  in 
‘‘working  my  way”  have  had  to 
undertake  occupations  leading  that 
“way.”  So  successful  have  I been  in 
finding  means  or  excuses  for  travel, 
that  among  my  intimates  the  saying  is 
current  that  if  I “ took  it  into  my  head” 
to  want  to  go  to  either  of  the  poles,  I 
would  engage  in  a business  that  would 
make  it  necessary  for  me  to  go  there, 
thus  conserving  my  respect  for  duty 
and  my  desire  for  travel  at  the  same 
time. 

I once  sought  and  secured  a place 
on  the  staff  of  one  of  the  great  Ameri- 
can daily  journals  in  order  to  gain 
access  to  famous  studios  in  Europe  and 
America,  and  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  personality  of  great  artists 
who  had  become  inaccessible  to  anyone 


12 


HAPPINESS. 


except  plutocratic  buyers  of  works  of 
art,  intimate  friends  and  critics.  This 
was  while  I was  studying  art  with  a 
view  to  learning  some  of  the  secrets  of 
its  inspiration  in  practice,  and  thus  jour- 
nalism served  a useful  purpose,  as  well 
as  satisfied  a burning  curiosity.  In  this 
connection  I will  say  that  I have  since 
been  able,  directly  and  indirectly,  to 
create  appreciation  that  has  led  to  the 
purchase  of  works  of  art  in  which  very 
large  sums  of  money  have  been  in- 
volved, so  that  I cannot  be  charged 
with  imposture  upon  a profession  which 
I respect  to  the  point  of  reverence  for 
its  mission  in  holding  a “true  mirror 
up  to  nature”  and  in  teaching  us  to 
appreciate  the  subtle  beauties  that 
nature  shows  in  all  of  her  aspects,  but 
which  become  commonplace  to  the 
many  without  the  assistance  of  art. 

The  Japanese  have  a proverb  which 
declares  that  “once  seeing  is  better 
than  an  hundred  times  telling  about,” 
and  this  good  proverb  has  been  the 


INTRODUCTION. 


13 


guiding  star  of  my  roamings,  and  has 
suggested  practical  participation  in 
some  of  my  occupations.  My  first  at- 
tempt to  see  the  antipodes  was  not  suc- 
cessful. It  did  not  have  the  necessary 
parental  sanction,  and  I was  brought 
back  before  I had  measured  very  much 
longitude  and  latitude;  but  the  de- 
termination shown  in  the  attempt  indi- 
cated so  strong  a tendency  that  it  led 
to  promise  of  assistance  and  permission 
to  travel  as  a reward  for  certain  accom- 
plishments in  study  that  were  consid- 
ered to  be  impossible,  as  judged  by 
former  efforts,  but  which  became  sur- 
prisingly easy  to  the  boy  who  saw  a 
way  to  the  other  side  of  the  world  in 
the  task. 

I spent  my  sixteenth  birthday  on 
the  Island  of  Java,  and  saw  Japan  and 
China  at  the  most  interesting  periods  of 
their  recent  history  — Japan,  in  Feudal 
Times,  before  any  of  the  changes  that 
have  made  her  the  last  and  greatest 
wonder  of  the  world  ; and  China,  at 


14 


HAPPINESS. 


the  close  of  the  Taiping  rebellion, 
wherein  more  than  thirty  millions  of 
persons  lost  their  lives,  and  about 
which  there  hovered  a lawlessness  the 
like  of  which  the  world  has  not  wit- 
nessed elsewhere. 

Chance  and  restless  change  have 
thrown  me  into  companionship  with  the 
most  elemental  of  human  beings ; and 
have  also  led  me  to  the  acquaintance, 
and  into  the  affections  of  the  wisest 
and  loveliest  of  men  and  women — -the 
rarest  blossoms  of  our  generation. 
Opportunity  has  found  me  available  for 
the  command  of  a crew  of  Cantonese 
pirates,  on  a Chinese  lorcha,  at  a time 
when  piracy  was  a common  occupation 
in  the  China  Sea  ; and  for  the  misman- 
agement of  a French  Grand  Opera 
Company,  when  no  one  else  was  fool- 
ish enough  to  undertake  it. 

The  foregoing  are  but  glimpses  of 
the  opportunities  for  observation  out 
of  which  I draw  my  deductions  rela- 
tive to  profitable  living.  Four  com- 


INTRODUCTION. 


15 


plete  trips  around  the  world  — two  of 
them  before  the  time  of  ocean  steam- 
ship lines  and  continental  railroads ; 
thirty-six  trips  across  the  American 
Continent  by  various  rail,  water  and 
stage  routes ; sixteen  voyages  across 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  many  across  the 
Atlantic  ; intermittent  periods  of  resi- 
dence in  many  different  countries  of 
Europe,  in  China,  in  India,  in  Japan 
and  in  different  localities  in  the  Ameri- 
cas ; as  well  as  visits  to  parts  remote 
from  the  lines  of  travel,  such  as  South 
Africa,  Yucatan  and  the  mountain 
regions  of  Mexico  and  Central  Amer- 
ica, that  are  the  type  of  all  of  the 
South  American  countries ; and  all  of 
which  residences  and  visits  have  been 
chosen  at  times  of  greatest  interest  in 
each  locality ; in  response  to  the  invi- 
tation of  the  Spirit-of-Adventure  by 
which  I have  been  led  — these,  together 
with  no  less  than  thirty-eight  distinct 
occupations,  embrace  the  sum  of  my 
opportunities. 


i6 


HAPPINESS. 


Fortune  has  always  been  kind  to 
me  when  I have  trusted  her ; when  my 
aims  and  ambitions  were  worthy,  and 
when  I have  been  sufficiently  apprecia- 
tive and  grateful  for  the  things  I al- 
ready possessed  to  merit  and  invite 
continued  favors ; but,  she  has  always 
passed  me  by  whenever  I have  doubted 
her  goodness  or  questioned  her  inten- 
tions. And  so  consistent  has  been  the 
course  of  Fortune,  as  viewed  in  the 
retrospect,  that  I can  assert,  with  all 
the  assurance  of  firm  belief,  that 
“Unto  him  who  hath  (appreciation 
and  gratitude)  shall  be  given ; but 
unto  him  who  hath  not  (appreciation 
and  gratitude)  shall  be  taken  away 
even  that  which  he  hath.” 

Until  I began  to  collect  my  remem- 
brances into  groups,  form  them  into 
classes  for  review  and  deduct  from 
them  suggestions  for  profitable  living, 
I had  thought  that  my  chronic  restless- 
ness was  aimless  as  measured  by  the 
common  estimate  of  usefulness ; but 


INTRODUCTION. 


1 7 


the  sympathy  aroused  by  the  publica- 
tion of  my  little  volume  — first,  pri- 
vately printed, — Menticulture , or  the 
A-B-C  of  True  Living — revealed  the 
possibility  of  utilizing  my  varied  expe- 
riences and  observations  to  good  ad- 
vantage in  calling  attention  to  uses- 
of-energy,  points-of-view,  habits-of- 
thought  and  habits-of-action,  that  made 
for  happiness  in  some  persons  in  some 
parts  of  the  world,  while  they  were  en- 
tirely unknown  to  others  as  well  fitted 
to  enjoy  them. 

I was  led  to  serious  study  of  the 
causes  and  effects  of  happiness  and  un- 
happiness by  observations  of  the  pitia- 
ble neglect  of  the  science  of  menticul- 
ture, (which  is  the  science  of  funda- 
mental means),  and  the  science  of 
happiness  (which  is  the  science  of 
ultimate  desirable  ends),  in  materially 
civilized  communities,  and  by  persons 
who  have  mastered,  and  are  already 
possessed  of,  the  physical  means  to 
comfort  and  happiness.  This  neglect  is 


18  HAPPINESS. 

not  surprising  when  we  reflect  that  all 
available  time  and  all  available  thought 
have  been  excitedly  employed  in  de- 
veloping material,  physical  means , to 
the  exclusion  of  the  thought  of  culti- 
vating the  end ; to  the  harnessing  and 
training  of  the  forces  of  Nature,  to  the 
exclusion  of  planning  for  their  best 
uses ; but  it  will  be  surprising  if,  how- 
ever, in  the  near  future,  the  ends  are 
not  scientifically  cultivated,  now  that 
the  fundamental  as  well  as  the  physical 
means  are  understood,  and  the  leisure 
to  apply  them  is  secured. 

More  than  forty  years  of  observa- 
tion, and  upwards  of  three  years  of 
study,  analysis  and  arrangement  with  a 
fixed  purpose,  have  enabled  me  to  sug- 
gest changes  of  attitude  towards  the 
problems  of  life  that  have  not  failed  to 
bring  more  or  less  strength  and  happi- 
ness to  all  who  have  adopted  them,  as 
attested  by  thousands  of  written  and 
verbal  communications  and  by  report. 
This  is  literally  true,  and  the  statement 


INTRODUCTION. 


19 


of  it  is  warranted  by  the  merit  of  the 
results,  removed  from  any  personality 
in  connection  with  it. 

The  underlying  cause  of  all  weak- 
ness and  unhappiness  in  Man,  heredity 
and  environment  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding, has  always  been,  and  is 
still,  weak  habit-of-thoiight.  This  is 
proven  by  the  observed  instances  in 
which  strong  habit-of-thought  has  inva- 
riably made  its  masters  superior  to 
heredity,  and  to  environment,  and  to 
illness,  and  to  weakness  of  all  kinds, 
and  has  redeemed  them  from  non-suc- 
cess and  misery,  to  the  enjoyment  of 
success,  honor  and  happiness.  It  has 
also  been  proven  that  none  are  so  ill- 
favored  as  to  be  exempt  from  regene- 
ration by  the  influence  of  optimistic 
thinking,  and  none  so  plain,  nor  even 
so  ugly,  as  judged  by  the  world’s  stan- 
dards of  beauty,  but  that  the  radiance 
of  pure  thought  will  make  them  more 
beautiful  than  their  brothers  of  nobler 
mien  and  more  symmetrical  physique, 


20 


HAPPINESS. 


but  whose  thoughts  are  poisoned  by 
fear  and  by  selfishness. 

Happiness  is  not  dependent  upon 
wealth,  and  wealth  does  not  necessa- 
rily bring  happiness,  but  both  are  de- 
pendent upon  good-habit-of -thought ; 
for  good-habit-of-thought  develops  ap- 
preciation, which  is  the  measure  of  all 
wealth,  and  appreciation  leads  to  the 
habit-of- feeling  and  the  habit-of-action 
which  produce  happiness. 

Notwithstanding  the  words  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  by  which  one-half  of  the 
world’s  inhabitants  are  supposed  to  be 
governed;  notwithstanding  the  admo- 
nitions of  the  other  great  teachers  to 
whom  the  other  half  of  humanity  turn 
for  counsel;  notwithstanding  the  les- 
sons taught  by  all  of  nature’s  processes 
of  growth,  especially  the  teachings  of 
later  evolution;  fear  — fear  of  death, 
fear  of  disaster,  fear  of  non-attainment, 
fear  of  non-preferment,  and  fear  of  the 
things  that  never  happen  as  feared, 
and  the  anger  and  the  worry  growing 


INTRODUCTION. 


21 


out  of  these  fears  — have  been  looked 
upon  as  afflictions  necessary  to  hu- 
manity, repressible  only  during  life, 
and  eradicable  only  at  the  change 
called  death. 

Early  theology  wrestled  with  condi- 
tions wherein  it  was  thought  necessary 
to  use  the  whip  of  fear  as  well  as  the 
attraction  of  love  to  incline  men  to 
religion.  Modern  theology  teaches  the 
religion  of  love  alone,  but  it  has  not 
yet  sufficiently  denounced  the  former 
teaching  of  fears,  perhaps  in  the  inter- 
est of  consistency  or  because  of  filial 
respect,  inasmuch  as  its  parents  once 
put  the  label  of  truth  upon  the  religion 
of  fear.  Science  also  has  taught,  and 
still  continues  to  teach,  the  potency  of 
the  crowding-out  stimulant  in  growth, 
without  proclaiming  a line  where  at- 
traction became  the  stronger  motive  in 
civilization  — an  intangible  line  already 
far  astern  in  the  wake  of  present  prog- 
ress. 

Fear  has  had  its  uses  in  the  evolu- 


22 


HAPPINESS. 


tionary  process,  and  seems  to  consti- 
tute the  whole  of  forethought,  as  in- 
stinct seems  to  constitute  the  whole  of 
intelligence  in  most  animals,  but  that 
it  should  remain  any  part  of  the  mental 
equipment  of  human  civilized  life  is  an 
absurdity.  There  are,  undoubtedly, 
human  beings  that  are  still  so  nearly 
animal  that  fear  alone  will  restrain 
them  from  wrong-doing,  or  stimulate 
them  (or,  rather,  push  them)  to  peace- 
ful and  useful  living,  but  none  such 
will  read  this  book,  and  neither  you 
nor  I should  be  burdened  by  their  limi- 
tations or  necessities.  We  have  passed 
the  point  where  we  need  to  be  pushed ; 
or,  if  we  have  not,  we  are  ashamed  to 
confess  it,  thereby  acknowledging  that 
it  is  unnecessary;  and  are  within  the 
atmosphere  of  appreciation  and  attrac- 
tion where  fear  and  its  expressions 
have  no  proper  place,  and  where  the 
toleration  of  fear  beclouds  not  only  our 
own  clear  vision,  but  also  the  vision  of 
those  who  are  still  below  us  in  the  scale 


INTRODUCTION. 


23 


of  intelligence,  to  whom,  as  beacon- 
lighters  on  the  heights  above  them,  we 
owe  the  influence  of  right  example. 

I have  made  especial  study  of  the 
reports  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  the  book  entitled  “Fear,” 
by  Prof.  Angelo  Mosso,  of  Turin,  Italy, 
and  the  contributions  to  the  American 
Journal  of  Psychology  by  President  G. 
Stanley  Hall,  of  Clarke  University, 
Worcester,  Massachusetts;  Dr.  Colin 
A.  Scott,  Professor  of  Psychology  and 
Child  Study  at  Cook  County  Normal 
School,  Chicago,  Illinois;  and  others 
who  are  devoting  particular  attention 
to  the  causes  and  effects  of  fears  in 
children;  together  with  the  after-effect 
of  early  fears  upon  persons  when  they 
are  fully  grown.  The  claim  of  these 
students  is  that  the  consideration  of 
the  future  that  constitutes  forethought 
is  a mixture  of  hope,  faith  and  fear,  the 
sum  of  which  is  the  stimulant  to  action 
and  progress,  hope  and  faith  being  the 
civilized  or  divine  motives,  and  fear 


24 


HAPPINESS. 


being  the  animal  motive.  My  own  ex- 
perience and  observations  corroborate 
this  contention,  but  I find  that  the  fear 
element  of  forethought  is  not  stimu- 
lating to  the  more  civilized  persons,  to 
whom  duty  and  attraction  are  the  nat- 
ural motives  of  stimulation,  but  is 
weakening  and  deterrent.  As  soon  as 
it  becomes  unnecessary,  fear  becomes 
a positive  deterrent,  and  should  be  en- 
tirely removed,  as  dead  flesh  is  removed 
from  living  tissue.  I have  also  demon- 
strated, beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt, 
that  the  fear  element  can  be  eliminated 
out  of  forethought  as  soon  as  it  becomes 
evident  that  it  is  unnecessary , separable 
and  eliminable , and  that  energy  and  de- 
sire for  progress  and  growth  are  beau- 
tifully stimulated  as  the  result  of  its 
elimination. 

To  assist  in  the  analysis  of  fear, 
and  in  the  denunciation  of  its  expres- 
sions, I have  coined  the  word  “fear- 
thought”  to  stand  for  the  unprofitable 
element  of  forethought,  and  have  de- 


INTRODUCTION. 


25 


fined  that  variously-interpreted  word 
“worry”  as  fearthought,  in  contradis- 
tinction to  forethought.  I have  also 
defined  “fearthought”  as  the  self- 
imposed  or  self-permitted  suggestion  of 
inferiority , in  order  to  place  it  where  it 
really  belongs,  in  the  category  of  harm- 
ful, unnecessary,  and,  therefore,  not- 
respectable  things. 

Darwin  and  Spencer  and  other  bi- 
ologists have  asserted  that  if  primitive 
man  had  not  been  urged  by  fear  of 
discomfort  he  would  have  sat  upon  a 
stone,  naked,  near  the  roots  or  the 
herbs  that  served  to  appease  his  hun- 
ger— if  it  also  happened  to  be  near  to 
a spring  where  he  could  quench  his 
thirst  — until  he  died;  and  that  fear 
has  been  the  impelling  motive  in  the 
progress  of  the  race.  This  was  un- 
doubtedly true  up  to  a certain  point, 
but,  like  many  of  the  laws  of  ye  olden 
tyme,  is  not  applicable  to  the  present 
nor  to  us. 

There  is  now  sufficient  protection 


26 


HAPPINESS. 


vouchsafed  by  forethought,  and  suffi- 
cient attraction  furnished  by  affection 
and  duty,  to  lead  the  van  in  the  pur- 
suit of  progress,  and  to  set  an  example 
that  will  be  its  own  torch-bearer  in 
guiding  the  trend  of  thought  and  of 
action. 

When  the  motto,  “ Fearlessness,”  be- 
comes embroidered  upon  the  banners 
of  all  of  our  religious  and  other  fra- 
ternal organizations;  when  “Freedom 
from  Fear”  becomes  the  slogan  of  Re- 
form, and  when  Appreciation,  Love  and 
Altruism  are  admitted  to  the  councils 
of  men,  then,  and  only  then,  will  famine 
end,  selfishness  fade,  strikes  become 
unnecessary,  misery  depart,  and  Hap- 
piness become  enthroned  as  the  ruler 
of  a joyously  industrious  and  univer- 
sally prosperous  people. 

Increase  is  prodigal,  and  accumula- 
tion is  already  prodigious,  so  that  it  is 
no  longer  a question  of  physical  means, 
but  a question  of  wise  distribution  and 
adjustment,  to  accomplish  all  that  so- 


INTRODUCTION.  27 

ciety  requires  to  insure  it  unremitting 
happiness. 

Churches  there  are,  clubs  there  are, 
lodges  there  are,  guilds  there  are,  and 
many  other  fraternal  organizations 
whose  aims  are  practically  the  same, 
but  whose  members  are  attracted  to- 
gether into  separate  groups  by  sympa- 
thies of  traditions,  race,  occupations  or 
general  trend-of-thought.  It  would  be 
a useless  iconoclasm  to  separate  from 
these  or  to  attempt  to  dismember  them. 
They  are  all  good  organizations, 
wherein  they  conserve  the  principles 
of  brotherhood  and  promote  practical 
altruism;  and  are  only  imperfect  wherein 
they  tolerate  slavery  to  the  fears,  slavery 
to  wealth,  slavery  to  the  harmful  con- 
ventions, and  slavery  to  the  antag- 
onisms, intolerances  and  other  evil  pas- 
sions that  prevent  economic  co-opera- 
tion, harmony  and  happiness. 

The  contention  of  this  book  is  that, 
with  means  already  secured,  there  is  a 
way  to  individual  happiness,  even  under 


HAPPINESS. 


2S 

existing  conditions;  and  also,  that  the 
present  acceleration  of  progress,  and 
certain  already  accomplished  tests  of 
possible  industrial  and  economic  re- 
form. coupled  with  an  optimism  that 
has  for  its  motto,  “All  can  be,  and, 
therefore,  shall  be  well,"  not  only  prom- 
ise, but  assure,  to  mankind,  in  a not 
remote  future,  equal  opportunities  for 
securing  happiness  by  means  altogether 
honest  and  altruistic. 

To  all  who  will  follow  me  through 
this  volume,  I promise  to  show  ways 
and  signs  that  will  assist  the  weak  to 
become  strong,  the  poor  to  become  rich 
in  appreciation  of  their  opportunities, 
and  the  rich  to  better  enjoy  their  good 
fortune  without  impoverishing  others 
to  do  so.  My  special  desire  is  to  enlist 
general  aid  in  eradicating  deterrents  to 
growth,  and  in  the  acceleration  of  prog- 
ress. 


HYPOTHESIS. 


The  object  of  Life  is  Growth. 

Harmony  is  the  condition  favorable 
and  necessary  to  growth. 

Harmony  is  the  normal  condition  of 
Nature,  as  proven  by  the  unfailing  and 
immediate  response  of  growth  to  its 
influence. 

Harmonic  conditions  are  created  by 
the  removal  of  deterrents  to  growth. 

Mind  is  the  first  essential  in  the 
growth  of  Man.  A healthy  mind  in- 
sures a healthy  body,  and  a rational 
cultivation  of  the  mind  cannot  fail  to 
result  in  the  attainment  of  the  highest 
ideals. 

All  of  the  processes  of  Nature  are 
consistent,  and  Man  and  Mind  are  no 
exception  to  the  rule  regulating  the 
growth  of  other  things,  except  that 
their  functions  as  chief  assistants  in 


29 


30 


HAPPINESS. 


evolution  are  unique,  and,  therefore, 
involve  greater  responsibility. 

Unselfishness  is  necessary  to  the  har- 
monic condition  in  Man,  and  service  to 
fellow-man  is  essential  to  his  growth. 

Happiness  is  the  evidence  and  fruit 
of  Growth. 

There  can  be  no  real  happiness  ex- 
cept in  Growth. 

Acts  are  thoughts  materialized;  or — 
thoughts  realized. 

Forethought  is  an  essential  aid  to 
Growth. 

Fearthought  is  the  cause  of  all  de- 
terrents to  growth  in  Man. 

Forethought  minus  Fearthought  is 
the  ideal  Mind  Equipment. 

Fearthought  serves  no  useful  pur- 
pose; neither  is  it  a necessary  infliction 
of  intelligent,  civilized  manhood  or 
womanhood. 

* * * 

Culture  is  necessary  to  the  best 
growth. 

Mind-culture,  or  menticulhire , is  the 


HYPOTHESIS. 


31 


most  important  of  all  the  divisions  of 
culture;  for,  out  of  Mind  thoughts 
spring,  and  accomplishments  grow;  but 
it  has  been  the  last  to  receive  the 
same  scientific  and  reasonable  attention 
that  the  other  cultures  have  received, 
and  had  not  even  been  given  a dis- 
tinctive name  until  Menticulture  was 
published. 

In  Agriculture  and  in  Horticulture, 
plants  that  seem  to  have  no  profitable 
nor  agreeable  use,  but  are  deterrent  to 
the  growth  of  useful  plants,  are  de- 
nominated “weeds,”  and  are  not  al- 
lowed to  retain  root  in  the  same  soil ; 
animals  and  other  living  and  moving 
things  that  are  not  serviceable,  and  can 
not  be  domesticated,  are  exterminated 
from  civilized  environment ; the  air 
that  Man  breathes  is  cleared  of  poison- 
ous malaria  by  draining  the  swamps  in 
which  the  bad  air  forms  ; and  friction 
is  minimized  in  machines,  in  order  that 
the  energy  applied  to  them  may  meet 
with  least  resistance,  and  suffer  the 


32 


HAPPINESS. 


least  waste.  But  no  such  care  is  com- 
monly given  to  the  mind. 

Fearthought  is  the  element  of  fric- 
tion, as  expressed  in  anger ; it  is  the 
predatory  element,  as  expressed  in 
waste  of  energy  — the  result  of  worry  ; 
and  it  is  also  the  weed  element,  as 
shown  by  the  uselessness  of  it  in  any 
form.  It  is,  however,  permitted  to  en- 
cumber, muddy  and  prey  upon  divinely 
ordained  forethought,  as  weeds  encum- 
ber good  soil,  as  mud  clouds  pure  wa- 
ter, and  as  savage  and  venomous  things 
prey  upon  the  comfort  and  life  of  ani- 
mals useful  to  Man,  and  even  upon 
Man  himself. 

Man’s  place  in  the  process  of  evo- 
lution is  that  of  assistant  only.  Man 
selects,  arranges,  brings  together,  sep- 
arates, waters,  fertilizes,  waits  upon 
and  otherwise  cultivates  Nature;  but 
he  has  not  been  able  to  add  one  cell  to 
growth  ; neither  has  he  succeeded  in 
drawing  an  atom  of  color  from  the 


HYPOTHESIS.  33 

sunlight  and  in  infusing  it  into  the  sap 
of  any  growing  thing. 

By  Man’s  attention  in  removing  the 
deterrents,  the  skimpy  little  wild  flower 
that  grows  upon  the  hillsides  of  China, 
that  I gathered  when  I was  a boy  — of 
less  importance  than  the  common  field 
daisy — has  become  the  royal  chrysan- 
themum of  the  Flower  Shows ; by 
Man’s  care  in  the  breeding,  feeding 
and  training  of  the  primitive  horse 
described  by  Professor  Marsh,  the  al- 
most-human  Kentucky  thoroughbred 
— the  “Black  Beauty”  of  our  pride  — 
has  been  evolved  ; and  the  clumsy  ef- 
fort of  the  first  inventor  of  steam  ap- 
plied to  machinery  has  become  the 
wonderful  quadruple-expansion  engine 
of  the  present,  by  the  harmonizing  ad- 
justment of  parts,  and  the  reduction  of 
friction  to  the  point  of  noiseless  effi- 
ciency, through  the  genius  of  inven- 
tion. 

Mind  is  the  great  machine  behind 


34 


HAPPINESS. 


all  other  machines  and  out  of  which 
all  accomplishment  comes.  Fear- 
thought  and  what  grows  out  of  it,  un- 
der the  class  names  of  anger  and 
worry,  are  like  rust  and  sand  in  the 
journals,  and  wear  out  the  bearings  of 
the  machine.  They  are  also  like  the 
impurities  in  water  that  cause  foaming 
in  a boiler  and  prevent  the  accumula- 
tion of  energy.  They  are  productive 
of  nothing  but  wear  and  waste,  wear 
a7id  waste,  as  long  as  they  are  permit- 
ted to  encumber  the  splendid  man- 
machine  and  its  source  of  power. 

The  creative  — the  growing  part  — 
of  Nature  never  fails  to  do  her  part  if 
the  deterrents  to  growth  are  removed. 
What  she  does  for  the  growth  of  plants 
and  of  animals,  and  for  the  creation  of 
power  from  the  use  of  her  forces  called 
steam  and  electricity,  she  will  also  do 
for  the  growth  and  development  of  the 
mind  of  man.  If  fearthought  and  its 
various  expressions  are  eradicated  ; or, 
more  correctly  speaking,  are  not  sought 


HYPOTHESIS. 


35 


and  nursed,  as  they  always  are,  noth- 
ing can  prevent  Growth  and  Service 
and  Happiness  from  occupying  their 
own  ; and  if  the  carbonic-acid-gas  of 
passion  is  kept  out  of  the  mental  at- 
mosphere, a vitalized,  altruistic  and 
spiritualized  energy  will  take  its  place. 
Good  comes  to  whatever  is  prepared  for  it. 

It  is  an  easy  matter  to  separate 
fearthought  from  forethought  if  it  is 
known  that  they  are  separable  ; not  by 
suppression,  nor  by  process  of  grad- 
ual repression  ; because,  as  long  as  a 
spark  of  fearthought  remains,  any  ex- 
citement or  draft  of  surprise  may  re- 
vive the  flame  to  destructive  propor- 
tions ; but  by  absolute  eradication, — 
determination  not  to  suffer,  nor  permit, 
nor  tolerate. 

The  method  of  eradication  is,  by 
the  way,  the  method  that  is  easier  than 
not,  as  soon  as  conviction  of  the  possi- 
bility of  it  is  nursed  into  a belief. 

Effective  methods  are  always  easy 
methods. 


36 


HAPPINESS. 


Repression  acknowledges,  and  there- 
fore strengthens,  the  evil  to  be  re- 
pressed, is  never-ending  and  altogether 
ineffectual. 

Eradication  is  the  simple  method 
of  ceasing  to  import  or  admit  evil 
counsel  or  report,  and  is  the  only  effect- 
ive method  in  menticulture. 

* * # 

While  the  future  is  the  field  in 
which  growth  must  take  place,  the  now 
or,  rather,  the  immediate-next-future, 
is  the  only  time  for  action.  Are  you 
possessed  of  fearthought,  or  anger,  or 
worry,  or  suspicion,  or  jealousy,  or 
envy,  or  malice,  or  indifference  at  this 
moment?  No ! You  cannot  be,  for 
two  distinct  thoughts  cannot  occupy 
the  mind  at  the  same  time,  and  your 
thought  is  occupied  with  the  subject 
matter  of  this  hypothesis.  The  next 
time  you  have  any  of  these  poisons 
you  will  h^ve  to  import  them  afresh  in 
response  to  the  invitation  of  so  mean 
a liar  as  Suspicion,  or  at  the  command 


HYPOTHESIS. 


37 


of  so  silly  a coward  as  Fear.  Habit- 
of-thought-of-evil  — the  devil — will  re- 
turn to  you  for  the  usual  easy  con- 
quest, but  newly-acquired  knowledge 
of  his  impotency  to  harm  can  aid  De- 
termination to  resist  him  until  Habit- 
of-Thought  is  no  longer  Bad-Habit-of- 
Thought  and  will,  therefore,  no  longer 
assist  in  the  materialization  of  the 
spook.  And  then,  and  only  then,  will 
you  be  free  — free  to  grow,  eager  to 
serve,  and  altogether  happy. 

All  time  — all  eternity  — is  made  up 
of  a succession  of  nows.  If  you  are 
free  in  the  present  now , you  may  more 
easily  be  free  from  temptation  in  the 
succeeding  nows  until  emancipation 
shall  be  complete  and  the  very  atmos- 
phere of  your  freedom  shall  exorcise 
all  evil  before  it  can  come  near  enough 
to  attract  your  consciousness. 

You  are  free  this  moment ; you  can 
be  free  in  the  succeeding  moments ; 
you  can  be  free  forever!  It  is  easier 

THAN  NOT ! 


THEORY. 


The  perfect  man  is  the  harmonious 
man. 

Perfection  in  man  is  attained  when 
he  is  doing  his  best. 

Symmetry  of  face  or  of  form,  quality 
of  voice,  or  strength  of  mind  or  muscle 
at  birth  are  the  responsibility  of  the 
Creator  and  of  progenitors. 

The  birth  of  the  body  of  man  is 
accomplished  when  it  attains  conscious- 
ness of  its  physical  requirements. 

The  birth  of  the  soul  of  man  is 
accomplished  when  he  attains  con- 
sciousness of  what  is  good,  of  what  his 
functions  and  duties  are  relative  to  his 
own  best  growth,  and  also  relative  to 
his  uses  and  duties  as  a member  of 
society. 

Man  is  not  fully  born  until  his  mind 
is  conscious  of  his  body  and  conscious 
38 


THEORY. 


39 


of  his  soul,  and  knows  the  functions 
and  duties  of  each  relative  to  the  best 
growth. 

Until  man  is  fully  born,  as  described 
above,  the  responsibility  of  his  perfec- 
tion or  imperfection  rests  with  his 
teachers  and  their  teachings. 

Everything  that  man  is  conscious  of 
is  his  teacher. 

You  are  the  teacher  of  every  person 
who  sees  or  is  otherwise  conscious  of 
you  or  of  your  example. 

It  is  unmanly,  and  especially  un- 
christian, not  to  seek  the  greatest  pos- 
sible enlightenment  relative  to  the 
functions  and  duties  in  growth,  not  only 
for  your  own  sake,  but  as  an  example 
for  others;  and,  being  enlightened,  not 
to  do  all  possible  to  assist  growth. 

Whoever  reads  and  assents  to  the 
above,  takes  upon  himself  the  respon- 
sibility of  his  future  growth,  and  will 
be  respectable  or  not-respectable  inso- 
far as  he  seeks  enlightenment  and 
assists  growth,  or  neglects  to  seek 


40 


HAPPINESS. 


enlightenment  and  thereby  retards 
growth. 

Happiness,  the  evidence,  fruit  and 
reward  of  growth,  rests  in  self-respect 
first,  and,  incidentally,  in  the  measure 
of  respect  held  by  others. 

No  one  is  respectable  who  is  not 
doing  his  best. 

When  a man  finds  fault  with  the 
material  with  which  he  has  been  fur- 
nished— with  his  form,  with  his  face, 
with  his  mind,  with  his  muscle,  with  his 
equipment  of  wealth,  or  other  means  or 
tools  of  growth,  at  the  time  of  his 
being  fully  born,  he  puts  blame  upon, 
and  thereby  blasphemes,  his  Creator,  as 
well  as  discredits  his  progenitors. 

Whoever  reads,  and  assents  to,  the 
foregoing  is  fully  born,  in  that  he  has 
learned  and  now  knows  what  is  best. 
The  question  then  is:  “What  will  he 
do  with  it?” 

In  highly-civilized  life  it  is  not-re- 
spectable  not  to  be  fully  born. 

The  fully-born  is  not  doing  his  best, 


THEORY. 


41 


and  is  therefore  not-respectable  when  he 
stiffens  himself  to  retain  or  cultivate  the 
habit-o f- fearthought. 

The  fully-born  is  not  doing  his  best , 
and  therefore  is  not-respectable , when  he 
entertains  and  nurses  worry. 

The  fully-born  is  doing  his  worst 
when  he  allows  himself  to  be  angry . 

The  fully-born  is  unmanly,  especially 
unchristian  and  altogether  not-respect- 
able when  he  is  not  doing  his  best,  and 
is  always  a subject  for  pity,  and  fre- 
quently a subject  for  contempt,  when 
he  is  doing  his  worst. 

The  fully-born-and-entirely-respect- 
able  individual  knows  that  fearthought 
is  an  unprofitable  element  of  fore- 
thought, knows  that  it  can  be  eliminated 
from  the  habit-of-feeling  by  persistent, 
intelligent  habit-of-thought,  and,  know- 
ing this,  prepares  the  field  of  his  mind 
for  unhampered  growth  by  eradicating 
all  of  the  expressions  of  fearthought,  as 
well  as  all  other  deterrents  to  growth. 

The  fully-born-and-entirely-respect- 


42 


HAPPINESS. 


able  individual  is  the  one  to  whom 
come  health,  strength,  memory,  inspi- 
ration, love,  preferment,  altruistic  im- 
pulses, and  the  appreciation  necessary 
to  find  the  greatest  enjoyment  in  them 
all. 

The  fully-born-and-entirely-respect- 
able  individual  needs  not  symmetry  of 
form  nor  beauty  of  face  nor  accumu- 
lation of  wealth  to  make  him  happy, 
for  the  light  from  within  will  give  grace 
to  his  form,  reflect  beauty  from  his 
face,  and  attract  all  of  the  things  that 
constitute  wealth. 

The  fully-born-and-entirely-respect- 
able  condition  is  the  condition  that  is 
easier  than  not,  pleasanter  than  any, 
and  in  which  only  true  happiness  dwells. 

Out  of  the  fully-born-and-entirely- 
respectable  habit-of-being  and  habit-of- 
thinking,  nursed  within  our  professedly- 
altruistic  organizations,  will  the  impulse 
spring  which  will  so  shape  conditions 
that  unhappiness  can  no  longer  exist, 
except  as  the  result  of  perv'ersity. 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS. 


Much  misunderstanding  arises  from 
the  various  interpretations  of  the  mean- 
ing of  terms.  So  different  are  the  in- 
terpretations given  to  some  words,  that 
a large  part  of  the  dictionaries  is  taken 
up  with  synonyms  whose  varied  appli- 
cations are  nearly  as  wide  apart  as  the 
limits  of  the  greatest  misunderstanding. 

Many  of  these  different  applications 
of  words  are  the  result  of  corruptions 
of  the  original  meaning,  but  they  are 
none  the  less  misleading,  and  furnish 
an  excuse  for  agreeing  on  specific  defi- 
nitions. 

As  an  example  of  corrupt  uses  given 
to  words  that  should  be  held  to  con- 
vey only  a sacred  meaning,  take  the 
word  “love,”  as  promiscuously  applied, 
for  instance.  It  should  be  removed 
from  all  selfishness,  and  attach  only 


43 


44 


HAPPINESS. 


to  such  holy  application  as  that  implied 
by  the  expression,  “ God  is  Love.” 
In  its  application  to  individuals,  as  in 
mother-love,  child-love,  love  between 
husband  and  wife,  or  between  broth- 
ers, it  should  only  have  spiritual  sig- 
nificance, unalloyed  by  any  suggestion 
of  liking,  approval,  desire,  or  lust ; and 
should  even  extend  its  mantle  to 
spread  alike  over  all  created  things. 

Love  had  already  been  so  corrupted 
in  its  uses  in  the  time  of  Comte,  that 
he  was  impelled  to  coin  a new  word  to 
express  unselfishness  between  brother- 
men,  and  hence  gave  the  word  “ al- 
truism”— (other-self)  — to  the  world. 

“ Altruism,”  also,  in  its  turn,  has 
suffered  by  contact  with  the  selfish 
habit-of-thought  of  the  present  time, 
until  it  does  not  longer  express  the 
highest  quality  of  love — the  spiritual — 
but  rather  the  socio-commercial  qual- 
ity that  seeks  and  expects  reward  of 
praise  or  material  emolument. 

Although  it  is  some  time  since  “ ab 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS.  45 

truism  ” was  first  used  — and  it  is  a word 
of  most  important  meaning  to  soci- 
ology— there  are  few  who  can  define  it. 

Probably  the  material  rush  of  the 
time  has  allowed  little  opportunity  for 
acquaintance  with  it.  It  is  rarely  seen 
in  the  magazines,  and  almost  never  in 
the  daily  papers.  This  is  probably  the 
reason  why  the  author  was  able  to  find 
only  three,  out  of  thirty  persons  asked, 
who  could  define  “altruism.”  These 
thirty  were  met  haphazard,  and  repre- 
sented a fair  average  of  city  intelligence. 
It  follows,  by  inference,  that  there  is  not 
as  much  altruism  as  there  should  be  in 
existence  among  us,  for,  if  there  were, 
the  word  chosen  by  Comte  to  express 
it  would  be  more  widely  used  and 
known. 

In  presenting  a set  of  definitions, 
there  is  no  intention  of  calling  into 
question  the  intelligence  of  any  reader. 
The  idea  was  suggested  by  the  wide 
difference  of  understanding  of  the 
meaning  of  the  word  “worry.”  This 


46 


HAPPINESS. 


difference  of  understanding  became 
apparent  in  the  discussion  of  Menti- 
culture * 

It  was  found  that  many  persons 
defined  “worry”  as  “any  consideration 
of  the  future/’  whereas  only  apprehen- 
sive consideration  of  the  future  was 
intended  to  be  meant  by  its  use  in 
Menticulture. 

Reference  to  the  origin  of  the  word 
revealed  that  it  was  first  used  to  ex- 
press the  “ barking  of  a small  dog,” 
probably  in  contradistinction  to  the 
biting  of  a large  dog.  It  was  first 
“worrit,”  and  became  “worry,”  as  now, 
later  on.  “Picking”  and  “nagging” 
were  its  synonyms  in  slang  until  they 
were  taken  into  the  language  as  sober 
expressions. 

In  the  attempt  to  separate  “worry” 

*Menticulture  is  the  title  of  a book  by  the  pres- 
ent author,  whose  mission  is  to  declare  a theory  of 
the  possible  and  very  profitable  eradication  of  the 
germs  of  all  evil,  and  consequent  unhappiness,  which 
are  commonly  assembled  under  the  class  names  of 
“anger ’’and  “worry”, — “anger”  representing  the 
aggressive,  and  “worry  ” representing  the  cowardly 
passions. 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS.  47 

from  "forethought,”  the  word  "fear* 
thought”  was  coined,  and  hence  our 
present  title,  and  also  the  definitions 
hereunder,  whose  object  is  to  render 
misunderstanding  as  nearly  impossible 
as  possible. 

Only  a few  of  the  words  relative  to 
our  treatise  are  defined  — only  such  as 
have  been  found  to  cause  discussion  in 
consideration  of  the  subject. 

GOD. 

No  definition  of  the  Christian  con- 
ception of  God  can  be  adequate.  God 
is  the  source  of  all,  in  all,  and  around 
all.  " The  Absolute,”  "Father,”  "Crea- 
tor,” "Jehovah,”  "Source”  and  other 
terms  are  used  for  euphony  and  to 
express  separate  God-qualities.  Who- 
ever attempts  to  define  God,  shows 
pitiful  limitations  thereby.  We  may 
feel  God,  but  we  cannot  define  God. 
Appreciation  of  God  is  the  measure  of 
man’s  possibilities  of  growth  and  the 
key  to  power  and  happiness. 


48 


HAPPINESS: 


APPRECIATION. 

Even  in  its  material  application, 
“appreciation”  is  a word  of  greatest 
importance,  and  should  mean  the 
highest  form  of  intelligence.  It  is  com- 
monly used  to  express  only  a simple 
knowledge  of  value,  but  it  should  have 
a larger  significance,  by  conveying  the 
idea  of  fullest  cultivation  and  enjoy- 
ment as  well  as  knowledge. 

Wealth,  for  instance,  can  be  meas- 
ured only  by  appreciation.  The  child 
in  appreciating  a toy  is  richer  than  a 
drowning  man  with  a thousand  dollars 
in  gold  in  his  pocket.  We  will  there- 
fore understand  appreciation  to  mean 
knowledge  and  full  cultivation  and  en- 
joyment. 

“Appreciation”  might  justly  be 
given  first  place  in  the  language,  as,  in 
its  spiritual  application,  it  implies  the 
knowledge  of  God  that  gives  birth  to 
Love. 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS.  49 


Our  definition,  “knowledge  — or 
understanding  — cultivation  and  full 
enjoyment,”  conveys  the  largest  and 
highest  meaning  of  “appreciation,” 
but  the  realization  of  it  is  not  complete 
until  every  God-expression  is  included, 
even  to  the  smallest  wonder  of  the 
universe. 

Neglect  of  the  cultivation  of  appre- 
ciation of  everything — of  the  com- 
monest things  in  our  surroundings  — 
is  loss  of  opportunity  to  conserve  the 
greatest  aid  to  progress  and  growth; 
because,  appreciation  of  lesser  things 
insures  a better  appreciation  of  the 
most  important  things. 

Cultivation  of  appreciation  is  culti- 
vation of  the  germ  of  all  good  and  the 
opening  wide  of  the  spiritual  flood- 
gates. Even  the  complete,  yet  simple, 
dignity  of  the  Lord’s  Prayer  can  be 
epitomized  within  the  prayer,  Father, 
teach  Thou  us  Appreciation. 


50 


HAPPINESS. 


LOVE. 

In  its  pure  form,  as  Christ  meant  it, 
Love  makes  no  distinction  between 
creatures  nor  between  things ; its  merit 
is  in  the  act  — or  thought  — and  not  in 
the  object  loved. 

The  divine  quality  in  man,  grow- 
ing out  of  appreciation,  finds  first  ex- 
pression in  love;  not  the  passive  prin- 
ciple, the  opposite  of  hate,  but  the  grow- 
ing, active  principle,  which  is  constantly 
flowing  forth  from  the  spiritually 
blessed  to  bathe  with  warmth  of  un- 
selfishness the  just  and  the  unjust 
alike.  Love  begets  altruism. 

As  “perfect  love  casteth  out  fear,” 
so  does  the  eradication  of  fear  insure 
the  wooing  of  perfect  love. 

ALTRUISM. 

Next  in  the  scale  of  importance 
is  Comte’s  word  “altruism,”  which  was 
coined  to  suggest  the  Christ-like  atti- 
tude of  unselfish  service  between  fel- 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS.  5 1 

low-men.  It  is,  however,  as  before 
stated,  now  commonly  understood  to 
be  the  social  or  business  application 
of  the  principle  of  love  which  needs 
and  expects  to  be  reciprocal.  Men 
were  asked  to  become  altruists  when 
they  were  asked  to  “ do  unto  others 
as  you  would  that  others  should  do 
unto  you.”  Growth  towards  divinity 
is  the  fruit  of  perfect  altruism.  Per- 
fect Love  begets  Perfect  Altruism. 
Christ  is  the  Perfect  Altruist. 

SPONTANEOUS  ALTRUISM. 

Any  degree  of  altruism  is  good  and 
is  sure  to  lead  to  higher  degrees,  but 
the  perfect  type  is  best  kept  in  view 
by  the  use  of  the  qualified  form  ex- 
pressed by  the  adjective  “sponta- 
neous”— meaning  voluntary,  without 
reward,  except  as  found  in  the  act 
itself.  This  qualification  is  almost  nec- 
essary to  prevent  the  lowering  of  the 
value  of  the  term,  as  “perfect”  was 
required  to  express  Christ-Love,  in 
contra-distinction  to  worldly  love. 


52 


HAPPINESS. 


OPTIMISM. 

Optimism  is  forethought.  Chris- 
tianity, pure  and  undefiled,  is  perfect 
optimism.  Christ  is  the  Perfect  Optim- 
ist * 

FORETHOUGHT. 

“Forethought”  is  the  logical , trust- 
ful, hopeful , Christian , and  therefore 
stimulating , consideration  of  the  future. 

Forethought  cannot  be  contrasted 
as  the  opposite  of  fearthought  for  the 
same  reason  that  a tree  cannot  be  con- 
trasted as  the  opposite  of  its  shadow; 
one  being  the  growing,  fruit-bearing 
substance;  and  the  other  being  the 
unsubstantial,  unillumined  simulation 
of  the  living  reality. 

ENVIRONMENT. 

Surroundings  which  impress  them- 
selves upon  the  mind  and  assist  to  in- 
fluence and  form  character  and  opinions. 

*Note:  The  motto  of  Optimism  is,  as  elsewhere 
stated,  "All  can  be,  and  therefore  shall  be,  well.” 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS.  53 


SPIRITUAL  CEREBRATION. 

Sometimes  called  unconscious  cere- 
bration; intelligence  not  derived  from 
experience;  principally  obtained  during 
undisturbed  sleep,  and,  seemingly,  su- 
pernaturally  clear  to  consciousness  on 
awakening  in  natural  manner;  Spiritual 
Cerebration  is  man’s  best  partner, 
if  confidently  listened  to,  heeded  and 
followed. 

NATURAL  SELECTION. 

Unconscious  physical  attraction;  as- 
sisting sustenance,  protection,  develop- 
ment and  reproduction;  attribute  of  all 
life. 

DIVINE  SELECTION. 

Attribute  only  of  Man;  distinguish- 
ing Man  from  the  rest  of  Creation; 
exercised  in  modifying  the  brute  law  of 
the  “ survival  of  Uie  fittest,  or  strong- 
est ,”  by  cultivating  harmonic  conditions 
favoring  growth  and  producing  happi- 
ness; God's  Higher  Law  of  Harmony 
executed  through  Man. 


54 


HAPPINESS. 


HAPPINESS. 

The  evidence  and  fruit  and  reward 
of  growth  as  involved  in  Altruism. 

NATURE. 

As  commonly  used,  “nature”  means 
creation  apart  from  man.  The  ac- 
cepted definition  is  “ creation,”  and  as 
such  includes  man  and  all  created 
things,  and  also  the  processes  of  crea- 
tion— generation,  degeneration  and 
regeneration  — as  involved  in  growth. 
The  common  use  of  the  word  “na- 
ture” is  a convenient  one,  and  hence 
let  us  make  use  of  it  as  meaning  crea- 
tion other  than  man. 

EGOCIATION. 

Egociation  is,  Appreciation  of  self  as 
a creation  of  God  and  as  an  instrument 
of  Altruism  — to  be  cultivated  to  its 
greatest  possibilities  in  order  that  it 
may  render  Altruistic  service  in  the  exe- 
cution of  the  Higher  Law  of  Harmony. 

There  are  two  distinct  kinds  of  ego  — 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS.  55 

self:  The  ego  that  is  physically  and 
intellectually  born  only,  and  whose  ten- 
dencies are  egotistically  selfish,  and 
therefore,  animalesque : And  the  ego  that 
enjoys  Appreciation,  realizes  God,  loves 
spontaneously,  understands  the  Higher 
Law  of  Harmony  and  serves  with  en- 
thusiasm in  the  execution  of  the  Law 
by  the  exercise  of  Divine  Selection,  and 
thereby  attains  True  Happiness. 

The  mental  equipment  of  the  un- 
thinking is  dulled  by  a confusion  of 
these  two  egos , and  hence  they  cultivate 
egotism,  believing  it  to  be  Egociation; 
as  they  cultivate  fear  thought,  believing 
it  to  be  forethought;  and  as  they  tolerate 
license,  believing  it  to  be  an  attribute  of 
liberty. 

The  desirability  of  separating  the 
lower,  or  animal,  self  from  the  Higher 
Self,  warrants  the  coining  of  a term, 
sufficiently  new  to  attract  attention  and 
sufficiently  allied  to  well-known  words 
to  explain  itself.  With  this  object  in 
view  I have  empirically  selected  a com- 


56 


HAPPINESS. 


bination  of  ego  and  appreciation , and  in 
so  doing,  have  coined  the  euphonious 
term  Egociation  as  an  antithesis  of 
“egotism,”  especially  useful  in  incul- 
cating a general  understanding  of  the 
Higher  Law  of  Harmony  and  in  secur- 
ing recognition  of  the  place  of  the 
Higher  Self  within  the  Law. 

In  the  cultivation  of  Egociation,  man 
recognizes  and  asserts  an  individuality , 
or  responsibility , as  a part  of  the  whole, 
the  result  of  appreciation,  opposed  to 
personality  or  separateness , which  is  an 

attribute  of  egotism. 

* * * 

Words  that  carry  good  suggestion 
with  them  are  less  liable  to  do  harm  by 
being  variously  understood  than  those 
that  convey  bad  suggestion.  These 
latter  should  be  defined  in  such  a man- 
ner as  to  clearly  suggest  their  badness; 
in  fact,  war  should  be  waged  upon  them 

by  every  possible  means. 

* * * 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS.  57 


EGOTISM. 

“Egotism”  is  separation  from  God. 
The  fruit  of  egotism  is  selfishness. 

SELFISHNESS. 

In  the  list  of  the  deterrents,  selfish- 
ness holds  bottom  place.  Self-fore- 
thought, self-carefulness,  self-culture, 
and  self-respect,  are  in  no  way  related 
to  selfishness,  but  are  provision  of 
strength  towards  useful  purposes.  Sel- 
fishness is  the  mark  of  animal  origin. 
We  will  therefore  define  it  as  relic  of 
animalism  remaining  in  man. 

Selfishness  is  the  opposite  of  altru- 
ism. While  a suggestion  of  altruism 
is  found  in  some  animals,  especially  in 
dogs,  it  is  not  an  animal  characteristic. 
Selfishness  is  the  predominant  animal 
trait  and  therefore  excuses  the  other- 
wise unkindly  comparison. 


58 


HAPPINESS. 


FEAR. 

Fear  is  also  a relic  of  animalism, 
and  a child  of  selfishness  — a deformed 
child  of  an  ill-formed  parent.  It  is 
not  a physical  condition,  but  simply  an 
expression  of  fearthought.  We  will 
therefore  define  “fear”  as  an  expres- 
sion of  fearthought. 

FEARTHOUGHT. 

“Fearthought”  is  the  self-imposed 
or  self -permitted  suggestion  of  inferior- 
ity. It  is  both  a cause  and  an  effect  of 
selfishness.  It  is  the  “tap-root  of  evil.” 

“Fearthought”  was  coined  by  the 
author  in  order,  if  possible  by  sugges- 
tion, to  separate  from  divinely  ordained 
forethought  any  element  of  appre- 
hension or  weakness  that  might  be 
masquerading  under  the  name  of  fore- 
thought in  the  minds  of  the  unthinking. 

WORRY. 

“ Worry”  is  fearthought  in  contradis- 
tinction to  forethought. 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS.  59 


ANGER. 

“Anger”  is  the  brutal  and  self -in- 
flicting  expression  of  disapproval — • 
brutal,  because  it  is  ungodly,  unchris- 
tian and  unaltruistic;  self  inflicting,  be- 
cause the  ill-effect  of  it  reacts  upon  the 
person  enangered. 

There  can  be  no  “righteous  anger.” 
Disapproval  there  must  be,  because 
man  has  been  endowed  with  the  fac- 
ulty of  Divine  Selection , and  thereby 
shows  a divinity  denied  to  all  other 
living  things  whose  preferences  are 
called  in  Science  “ natural  selection.” 
Disapproval  in  the  interest  of  har- 
mony— Divine  Selection  — and  dis- 
approval in  the  creation  of  discord  — 
anger  — are,  the  one  holy,  and  the 
other  unholy,  uses  of  the  faculty  of 
• selection. 

There  may  be,  then,  righteous  disap- 
proval, but  there  never  can  be  “ right- 
eous anger.” 


6o 


HAPPINESS. 


ENVY. 

“ Envy”  is  anger  of  non-possession. 

“ Envy  ” is  sometimes  wrongly  used 
to  express  appreciation,  as,  “I  envy 
you  your  good  fortune,”  but  we  will 
give  it  the  one  meaning  of  “ anger  of 
non-possession.” 

JEALOUSY. 

“Jealousy”  is  “the  homage  that  in- 
feriority pays  to  merit”;  *or,  recogni- 
tion or  confession  of  inferiority ; or,  fear- 
thought. 

TAP-ROOT. 

“Tap-root”  is  “the  chief  root.”  It  is 
the  main  support  of  the  tree,  of  nearly 
the  size  of  the  trunk,  and  without 
which  the  tree  must  fall  and  die.  The 
tap-root  strikes  deep  into  the  soil,  while 

*Note — I take  this  apt  definition  of  “jealousy  ” 
from  that  excellent  periodical — the  organ  of  the 
League  of  American  Wheelmen — “ The  Bulletin  and 
Good  Roads.”  Many  good  suggestions  in  menticul- 
ture  accompany  the  excellent  suggestions  relative  to 
good  roads  in  this  paper.  Good  thoughts  are  good 
roads  to  good  action. 


PREFATORY  DEFINITIONS.  6 1 


the  surface-roots  reach  out  along  the 
surface.  For  example;  egotism  is  the 
tree  of  evil,  either  selfishness  or  fear- 
thought  is  the  tap-root,  and  anger  and 
worry  in  all  their  phases  are  the  surface 
roots  of  the  tree.  The  tree  is  known 
by  its  fruits,  which  are,  separation, 
paralysis,  disease,  unhappiness  and 
death. 


TROUBLE. 

Trouble  does  not  really  exist.  Fear- 
thought  of  trouble  is  as  near  as  one 
ever  gets  to  the  condition,  for  the  rea- 
son that  whatever  has  come  has  already 
ceased  to  exist,  except  in  the  memory. 
The  reason  for  so  fine  a distinction  is 
made  clear  under  the  caption  of  “The 
Impotence  of  Pain,”  and  is  emphasized 
in  order  to  place  merited  responsibil- 
ity on  fearthought.  What  is  called 
“trouble,”  however,  can  be  defined  as 
unwelcome  conditions , but,  if  analyzed, 
the  chief  elements  of  the  “conditions” 
will  be  found  to  be  fearthought  of  still 


62 


HAPPINESS. 


more  unwelcome  conditions.  The  tap- 
root, then,  of  trouble  is  fearthought. 

PESSIMISM. 

Pessimism  is  fcarthoiight.  Pessim- 
ism is  the  devil. 

NERVOUSNESS. 

Nervousness  is  generally  an  effect 
and  not  a cause.  It  is  the  immediate 
or  reflex  result  of  fearthought. 

TEMPERAMENT. 

Like  “ nervousness,”  so-called,  “tem- 
perament ” — habit-of-feeling  — is  gen- 
erally an  effect  and  not  a cause;  and 
is  frequently  used  as  an  excuse  for  self- 
indulged  weaknesses. 


THE  VALUE  OF  SIMILE. 

Christ  taught  almost  entirely  by 
parable. 

Apropos  of  the  value  of  simile  is 
an  experiment  about  which  I have 
recently  heard. 

An  experimenter  wished  to  meas- 
ure in  some  way  the  strength  of  certain 
vibrations  and  their  effect  upon  vibra- 
tory things.  A large  steel  comb,  such 
as  is  used  in  music-boxes  to  produce 
sounds,  was  constructed.  Each  tooth 
was  made  as  nearly  as  possible  just 
like  every  other  tooth.  They  not  only 
seemed  to  measure  alike,  but  when  set 
in  motion  the  vibrations  seemed  to  be 
alike  to  the  sense  of  hearing. 

There  was  also  constructed  a huge 
tuning-fork,  large  enough  to  be  struck 
with  a bar  of  iron,  and  whose  vibra- 
tions, when  it  was  struck,  came  forth 
63 


64 


HAPPINESS. 


in  big  undulating  waves  like  the  peal- 
ing of  a temple  bell. 

The  object  of  the  experiment  was 
to  observe,  through  the  effect  of  power- 
ful vibrations  on  the  teeth  of  the  reso- 
nant comb,  a possible  difference,  too 
slight  to  be  measured  by  calipers  or  by 
striking  the  teeth  separately.  The 
sound-waves,  coming  alike  to  all,  would 
affect  all  alike  unless  there  should  be 
a difference  in  the  receptivity  of  the 
teeth  owing  to  differing  density  of 
metal,  size,  or  some  other  condition 
not  measurable  by  other  means.  By 
listening  attentively  near  to  the  comb, 
the  effect  of  the  vibrations  on  the  sepa- 
rate teeth  could  be  heard. 

The  tuning-fork  was  placed  about 
forty  feet  away  from  the  steel  comb, 
and  was  struck  a heavy  blow  with  the 
iron  bar.  Only  three  of  the  twelve 
teeth  vibrated  in  response.  The  others 
were  not  in  sympathy.  They  did  not 
hear  the  sound. 

I did  not  see  the  experiment,  but  it 


THE  VALUE  OF  SIMILE.  65 

will  serve  to  illustrate  the  value  of 
simile. 

All  knowledge  is  measured  by  com- 
parison. The  most  effective  teaching 
is  done  through  parable  or  simile.  A 
so-called  magnetic  orator  or  writer 
reaches  his  hearers  or  readers  by  aid 
of  apt  simile.  In  this  the  orator  has 
the  advantage.  If  one  simile  does  not 
convey  the  point  he  wishes  to  make,  he 
tries  another  and  yet  another  until  he 
has  detected  sympathetic  signs  of  ap- 
proval in  the  majority  of  his  audience. 
If  there  are  present  a hundred  listen- 
ers, it  may  require  ten  stories  or  ten 
similes  to  reach  the  entire  hundred,  as 
there  may  be  ten  kinds  of  interest  or 
sympathy  present  to  be  reached. 
Farmers  and  gardeners  may  not  be 
familiar  with  the  terms  that  describe 
the  experience  of  the  mariner ; mechan- 
ics may  not  understand  the  language  of 
the  counting  room  or  of  the  various 
exchanges;  and  men  may  not  appre- 
ciate the  special  accomplishments 


66 


HAPPINESS. 


sympathies,  weaknesses  or  foibles  of 
women.  Each  individual  is  a sepa- 
rate tooth  or  string  in  the  instrument 
called  society.  Heredity  and  environ- 
ment have  tempered  and  shaped  each 
individual  differently  from  his  fellows. 
Truth  is  always  the  same,  but  the 
vibrations  that  carry  it  must  be  regu- 
lated to  suit  the  conditions  and  under- 
standings of  each  person,  or  group  of 
persons,  to  be  harmonized  by  it. 

In  an  attack  upon  offensive  and  evil 
things,  offensive  similes  are  best  em- 
ployed. It  is  an  application  of  the 
principle  that  a thief  can  best  catch  a 
thief.  The  object  of  this  little  book  is 
to  wage  war  upon  fearthought  and  its 
brood  of  evil  children.  This  is  the 
excuse  for  writing  under  such  offensive 
captions  as  “ Don’t  Be  a Sewer,”  and 
“Thou  Shalt  Not  Strike  a Woman,” 
and  also  such  ungrammatical  caption 
as  “ I Can’t  Not  Do  It.” 

It  is  the  opinion  of  the  author  that 


THE  VALUE  OF  SIMILE.  67 

we  are  in  the  habit  of  taking  evil  too 
seriously.  Evil  is  usually  ridiculous, 
and  while  it  thrives  under  the  stimula- 
tion of  serious  consideration,  it  cannot 
stand  ridicule.  Shrewd  politicians 
know  this,  and  hence  depend  more  upon 
the  political  cartoon  to  kill  the  politi- 
cal enemy,  than  upon  all  the  reading 
matter  possible  to  be  printed. 

What  the  terms  “God,”  “Apprecia- 
tion,” “Mother,”  “Love,”  “Altruism,” 
“ Egociation,”  “Forethought,”  “Hap- 
piness,” etc.,  stand  for,  should  be 
reverenced  and  glorified ; while  the 
devil,  egotism,  selfishness,  fearthought, 
anger  and  worry,  and  all  of  their 
various  expressions,  should  be  ridi- 
culed out  of  respectability. 

There  is  no  intent  to  make  vulgar 
excuses  for  the  method  of  presentation 
of  the  simple  and  aged  truths  which 
are  the  subject  of  the  present  book. 
For  the  same  reason  that  I have  asked 
my  readers  to  agree  with  me  as  to  the 


68 


HAPPINESS. 


meaning  of  terms  in  connection  with 
the  discussion,  I ask  them  to  allow  me 
to  state  my  reasons  for  the  method  of 
the  presentation,  if  it  should  seem  un- 
usual and,  perhaps,  undignified. 


ANALYSIS  OF  FEAR. 


Professor  Angelo  Mosso,  the  emi- 
nent physiologist  of  Turin,  Italy,  who 
has  experimented  with  the  condition 
and  results  of  fear  to  a greater  extent 
than  any  one  else  that  I know  of,  has 
published  a volume  entitled  “Fear.”* 
Professor  Mosso  writes  of  much  re- 
garding fear  that  we  can  all  corrobo- 
rate from  personal  experience  as  to  the 
uncomfortableness  of  the  emotion,  and 
also  informs  us  of  much  that  is  instruc- 
tive as  to  the  baleful  effects  of  the 
mischief  it  produces  upon  the  tissues 
of  the  body.  He  states  that,  uncon-“ 
sciously  or  consciously,  the  effect  of 
fear  is  found  to  be  disarrangement, 
which  allows  or  causes  inflammation, 

* Messrs.  E.  Lough  and  F.  Kiesow,  pupils  of 
Professor  Mosso,  translated  the  fifth  Italian  edition 
of  “Fear ’’into  English,  and  Longmans,  Green  and 
Company  published  it  in  1896. 

69 


70 


HAPPINESS. 


fever  and  other  unhealthy  conditions 
that  are  favorable  to  the  nesting  of  the 
microbes  of  special  diseases,  such  as 
are  sometimes  found  in  the  air  or  in 
the  water  that  we  take  in,  and  which 
are  ever  waiting  for  a chance  to  nest 
and  breed. 

An  eminent  English  physician  has 
also  communicated  to  a leading  Eng- 
lish magazine  a belief  that  fear  directly 
attacks  the  individual  molecules  of  the 
body  and  causes  a disarrangement,  a 
relaxing,  a letting-go  condition  of  the 
molecules  in  their  relation  to  adjoining 
molecules,  and  that  the  relaxed  condi- 
tion is  that  in  which  disease  originates. 
He  states  that  there  are  means  of  com- 
munication within  the  body  that  are  as 
direct  and  distinct  as  are  the  wires 
that  convey  the  electric  fluid  from 
point  to  point,  and  that  they  connect 
the  brain  or  nervous  centers  with  each 
pair  of  molecules.  By  these  means  the 
sense  of  fear  travels,  weak  or  strong,  in 
response  to  every  pulse  of  its  activity. 


ANALYSIS  OF  FEAR. 


71 


Within  our  visible  experience,  we 
know  how  completely  the  emotion  of 
fear,  or  any  of  its  various  expressions 
can  upset  the  stomach,  suspend  the 
appetite  and  even  cause  instant  death. 
So  evident  are  the  bad  effects  of  fear, 
that  it  is  necessary  only  to  refer  to 
them  before  suggesting  a remedy  ; but 
there  are  some  powerful  illustrations 
that  are  interesting,  and  which  will  be 
found  under  the  caption  of  “Baleful 
Effects  of  Fear.” 

In  this  connection,  what  we  are  most 
interested  in  is,  how  to  rid  ourselves  of 
the  habit  of  fear.  Fear  is  not  a phys- 
ical thing.  It  is  the  result  of  fear- 
thought,  and,  being  fearthought,  has  no 
more  substance  than  other  thought. 

In  animals  it  is  an  attribute  of  in- 
stinct, and  is  a wise  provision  of  pro- 
tection. In  the  human  young,  it  is  not 
so.  In  the  helplessness  of  human  fcetal 
existence  and  infancy,  we  find  a per- 
fectly clean,  but  wonderfully  impres- 
sionable, thought-matrix,  into  which 


72 


HAPPINESS. 


are  to  be  impressed  the  suggestions 
whose  sum  constitutes  the  intelligence 
in  men  which  takes  the  place  of  instinct 
in  animals. 

Fear  is  no  constituent  part  of  the 
composition  of  this  thought-matrix. 
Susceptibility  to  fearthought,  as  it  is 
susceptible  to  any  and  all  suggestions, 
is  the  nearest  approach  to  inherent  in- 
fliction of  fear  that  the  unfolding  soul 
is  burdened  with.  If  the  race-habit-of- 
thought  were  indelibly  pock-marked 
by  fear,  and  stamped  its  roughness  on 
the  thought-matrix  of  all  mankind, 
there  would  be  no  one  free  from  it;  but, 
as  many  are  born  into,  and  live,  a life 
of  great  strength  and  courage,  free 
from  any  taint  of  fearthought,  this  as- 
sumption is  disproved,  and  is  as  absurd 
as  would  be  the  assumption  that  man 
must  always  do  whatever,  and  only 
what,  his  ancestors  did. 

All  of  the  fear-impressions  received 
are  the  result  of  either  pre-natal  or  post- 
natal suggestion.  It  is  within  the 


ANALYSIS  OF  FEAR. 


73 


power  of  parents  and  nurses  to  keep 
the  delicate  susceptibility  of  their 
charges  free  from  the  curse  of  fear- 
thought;  or  to  cause  or  allow  it  to  be 
scared  and  bruised  by  the  claws  of  the 
demon. 

President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  of  Clarke 
University,  Editor  in  Chief  of  the  Amer- 
ican Journal  of  Psychology,  and  Dr.  Colin 
A.  Scott,  Professor  of  Psychology  and 
Child  Study  at  the  Cook  County  Nor- 
mal School,  Chicago,  111.,  U.  S.  A.,  have 
rendered  greatest  service  to  humanity 
by  searching  out  and  analyzing  fears  in 
children,  exposing  the  absurdity  of 
them,  showing  the  sources  from  which 
foolish  fears  are  derived,  and  thereby 
dragging  from  ambush  the  worst  enemy 
of  mankind,  whose  strength  is  devel- 
oped by  means  of  secret  toleration,  but 
can  easily  be  overcome  if  uncovered. 

The  method  of  securing  information 
was  by  means  of  the  questionaire, 
the  answers  to  which,  although  un- 
signed and  unidentifiable,  and  savoring 


74 


HAPPINESS. 


of  exaggeration  or  romance,  furnish 
splendid  texts  in  a crusade  against  the 
toleration  of  the  habit-of-fear  in  a civil- 
ized community.  One  can  scarcely 
imagine,  before  reading  the  answers  to 
the  fear  questio7iairc,  the  unreasonable 
and  absurd  fears  that  warp  the  lives 
and  ruin  the  health  of  many  of  the 
people  among  whom  we  move,  and  by 
whom,  in  some  measure,  we  and  our 
children  are  unconsciously  influenced. 

If  it  were  the  community-habit-of- 
thought  that  fear  was  an  unnecessary 
thing  and  an  evil  thing,  and  not  re- 
spectable and  not  Christian,  many  of 
these  fears  would  not  exist,  owing  to 
the  proneness  of  all  persons  to  imita- 
tion and  their  acceptance  of  commun- 
ity-of-habit-thought  as  law  and  gospel. 
Fear  is  a very  insidious  thing.  It  will 
enter  the  smallest  opening,  and  fer- 
ment, and  increase,  and  permeate  what- 
ever it  attacks,  if  it  be  permitted  foot- 
hold in  the  least  degree. 


ANALYSIS  OF  FEAR. 


75 


We  have  too  little  time  in  life  per- 
sonally to  investigate  all  of  the  causes 
of  things  that  are  pertinent  to  our  liv- 
ing and  working,  or  to  learn  the  reason 
for  their  leading  to  observed  results. 
We  are  indebted  to  Professor  Mosso, 
Dr.  Hall,  Dr.  Scott  and  other  pains- 
taking scientists,  for  observing  the 
habits  of  our  enemies,  and  for  giving 
the  results  of  their  observations  in  such 
agreeable  forms  as  are  the  intimate  and 
frank  analyses  of  fear  given  in  Profes- 
sor Mosso’s  book  and  other  treatises 
on  the  subject;  but  what  we  are  most 
interested  in  is,  how  to  kill  or  how  to 
escape  fearthought  within  ourselves 
and,  ultimately,  how  to  protect  our 
children  against  the  evil. 

To  digress  somewhat,  and  as  an  ex- 
cuse for  using  the  terms  of  parable  and 
homely  experience  instead  of  the  terms 
of  science : It  is  said  that  the  use  of 

alum  for  the  settling  of  impurities  out 
of  water  was  an  old  housewife’s  rem- 


76 


HAPPINESS. 


edy  for  a very  long  time  before  any 
scientist  studied  the  chemical  change 
that  effected  the  result. 

The  old  housewives  knew  by  ex- 
perience, as  well  as  did  the  doctors,  that 
alum  would  “settle”  water,  but  it  was 
left  to  the  latter  to  say  why  it  did  so. 
We  are,  therefore,  mainly  indebted  to 
a chance  discovery,  and  to  the  pre- 
servation of  the  formula  by  housewives, 
for  our  ability  to  purify  water  by  means 
of  alum. 

In  the  same  manner  we  have  dis- 
covered, perhaps  by  accident,  that  cer- 
tain suggestions  will  purify  our  minds, 
by  eliminating  special  fears  by  which 
we  have  been  dominated.  We  also 
have  learned  by  experiment  that  all 
fear  is  eliminable  by  use  of  sufficiently 
powerful  suggestion  made  to  fit  the 
particular  fear  experimented  against. 
I know  that  the  deterrent  passions  can 
be  eradicated;  and,  easier  than  not. 
Others  know  this  also,  and  are  living 
lives  of  beautiful  strength,  freedom 


ANALYSIS  OF  FEAR. 


77 


and  happiness,  who  once  were  slaves 
to  fearthought;  and  many  such  there 
already  are,  and  their  number  is  in- 
creasing very  rapidly  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  observation  of  unfailing, 
profitable  results  in  consequence. 

If  we  know  that  anything  can  be  done , 
it  is  not  vitally  essential  that  we  should 
know  why  it  is  possible. 

Experience,  in  conveying  the  sugges- 
tion, has  taught  that  there  is  some  way 
to  reach,  and  to  dispel,  any  special  fear. 

Science  will  some  time,  undoubtedly, 
be  able  to  tell  us  just  how  to  treat  each 
form  of  fear  in  a scientific  manner,  but 
in  the  meantime  we  know  that  it  is 
possible  to  cure  all  of  the  separate 
forms  of  fear  by  rooting  out  the  basic 
fear  — the  fear  of  death — and  by  con- 
veying the  all-powerful  suggestion  that 
all  fear  is  needless  and  unprofitable, 


BALEFUL  EFFECTS  OF  FEAR. 


In  the  last  chapter  I stated  that  the 
bad  effects  of  fear  were  so  well  known 
to  every  one  that  it  was  not  necessary 
to  dwell  upon  them,  but  second  thought 
suggests  stating  a few  special  cases  that 
have  been  told  me  by  physician  friends 
who  are  interested  in  the  lay  experi- 
ments I am  making. 

In  the  Southern  States  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  where  the  black 
race  comes  into  closest  touch  with 
Caucasian  civilization  under  condi- 
tions of  free  expression,  is  probably 
the  best  place  to  study  fear  and  its 
opposite,  chivalrous  courage. 

Dr.  William  E.  Parker,  of  the 
Charity  Hospital  of  New  Orleans,  was 
once  called  to  attend  a big  negro  who 
had  been  brought  in  by  the  ambulance, 
and  whom  the  students  in  charge  of  the 
78 


BALEFUL  EFFECTS  OF  FEAR.  79 

ambulance  had  frightened  nearly  to 
death  by  telling  that  he  was  badly 
wounded  in  the  stomach,  and  would 
probably  die. 

The  negro  was  big  and  burly  and 
black,  and  yet,  livid  with  fear.  Both 
pulse  and  temperature  indicated  seri- 
ous trouble  within,  and  the  convulsive 
tremors  that  shook  him  from  time  to 
time  revealed  a state  of  collapse  that 
might  end  in  death  at  any  time. 
There  was  no  outward  flow  of  blood, 
but  the  probable  inward  flow  seemed 
more  dangerous  in  consequence. 

The  account  of  the  case,  as  related 
by  the  students,  told  of  a shooting 
affray,  in  which  the  negro  had  been  hit 
in  the  abdomen,  as  evidenced  by  a bul- 
let-hole in  his  clothing. 

Dr.  Parker  began  an  examina- 
tion by  ordering  the  clothing  of  the 
patient  removed,  and  during  which  a 
bullet,  much  flattened,  fell  upon  the 
floor.  This  bullet  had  done  no  seri- 
ous injury,  of  course,  but  there  might 


8o 


HAPPINESS. 


have  been  two  shots  and  two  bul- 
lets, one  of  which  had  penetrated 
the  body,  and  hence  the  bullet  that 
fell  upon  the  floor  caused  no  special 
attention,  till  search  had  been  made 
in  vain  for  a hole  in  the  skin.  Com- 
plete examination  revealed  the  fact 
that  the  negro  had  been  hit,  but 
that  the  bullet  had  struck  a button, 
causing  a bruised  place  behind  the  but- 
ton, but  had  lodged  in  the  clothing,  in 
harmless  inertia. 

As  the  doctor  held  up  the  bullet,  and 
told  the  patient  of  the  slight  extent  of  his 
injury  and  the  wonder  of  his  escape, 
good,  warm  blood  returned  to  the  livid 
countenance,  the  pulse  and  the  tem- 
perature assumed  their  normal  condi- 
tion, a grateful  sparkle  lit  up  the  al- 
most glassy  eyeballs,  and  the  broadest 
possible  grin  spread  over  the  face  of 
the  erstwhile  dying  man. 

The  negro  got  down  from  the  ope- 
rating-table, arranged  his  clothing,  and, 
after  apologizing  for  the  trouble  he 


BALEFUL  EFFECTS  OF  FEAR.  8 I 

had  caused,  and  after  thanking  the 
doctor  and  the  students  for  their  at- 
tentions, went  out  into  the  street  as 
well  as  ever.  He  had  been,  half  an 
hour  before,  at  death’s  door. 

Dr.  Henry  A.  Veazie,  one  of  the 
student-heroes  of  the  yellow-fever  epi- 
demic of  1878,  who  had  splendid  op- 
portunity to  witness  the  effects  of  fear 
during  an  epidemic,  asserts  that  fear  is 
a certain  cause  of  attack  of  yellow  fever. 

I will  say,  parenthetically,  in  the  way 
of  right  information  relative  to  the 
South,  that  there  has  been  no  epidemic 
since  1878 — twenty  years;  that  it  has 
been  proven  that  yellow  fever  does  not 
originate  in  any  part  of  the  United 
States,  and  that  it  is  very  effectively 
barred  out  at  quarantine,  or,  if  acci- 
dentally admitted,  that  it  is  easily 
killed  by  present  means  of  treatment, 
and  that  an  epidemic  is  no  longer  men- 
tioned as  a possibility — only  as  quite  a 
remote  memory — in  New  Orleans,  or 
elsewhere  in  the  South. 


82 


HAPPINESS. 


Doctor  Veazie’s  story  is  corrob- 
orated by  an  able  brochure  on  “The 
Influence  of  Fear  in  Disease,”  by  the 
much-beloved,  the  late  Dr.  William  H. 
Holcomb,  of  New  Orleans;  and,  so 
helpful  are  the  suggestions  contained 
in  it,  that  I have  secured  the  privilege 
from  the  Purdy  Publishing  Company, 
of  Chicago,  of  reprinting  largely  from 
it,  and  have  added  the  matter  copied 
as  “ Appendix  A,”  to  this  volume.* 

Doctor  Veazie  also  called  my  atten- 
tion to  the  unusual  fatality  attending 
what  are  called  “ frog-accidents.” 
Train-handlers  and  yardmen  employed 
on  railroads  are  very  liable  to  these 
“ frog-accidents.”  The  frog  is  that 
part  of  a switch  where  the  rails  come 
together,  forming  a “ V.”  In  running 
about  recklessly,  as  a train-man  gener- 
ally does,  he  sometimes  catches  the  sole 

*Two  other  brochures  by  Dr.  Holcomb  are  pub- 
lished by  the  Purdy  Company.  They  are  “ Con- 
densed Thoughts  about  Christian  Science”  and  “The 
Power  of  Thought  in  the  Production  and  Cure  of 
Disease.” 


BALEFUL  EFFECTS  OF  FEAR.  83 

of  a boot  in  the  “V,”  and  wedges  it 
in  so  tightly  that  the  foot  cannot  be 
withdrawn.  If  a locomotive,  or  a car, 
happen  to  be  coming  towards  him,  and 
cannot  be  stopped  in  time,  cutting  off 
of  the  foot  or  the  leg  by  the  wheels 
upon  the  rails  is  a certain  result. 

If  it  were  done  instantly,  and  with- 
out a foreknowledge  of  the  owner  of 
the  leg  or  foot,  the  chances  of  recovery 
would  be  almost  assured,  because  of  the 
present  skill  of  surgery  and  the  efficacy 
of  known  antiseptics;  but  with  the  few 
moments  of  foreknowledge  of  the  im- 
pending accident,  the  poison  of  fear- 
thought  has  time  to  so  unnerve  the  sys- 
tem, relax  the  tissues,  and  itself  disease 
the  body  by  shock,  that  the  wounding 
usually  results  in  death. 

There  is  probably  no  situation  in 
which  a person  can  be  placed  where 
the  conditions  are  more  horrible  than 
to  be  wedged  between  the  rails,  and  to 
see  an  eighty-ton  locomotive  rolling  on 
to  him  with  irresistible  weight.  Being 


84 


HAPPINESS. 


condemned  to  be  hanged  cannot  be  as 
fearful,  for  the  reason  that  the  con- 
demned has  been  led  gradually  to  con- 
template the  possibility  of  death  by  this 
means,  and  has  come  to  expect  it  with 
a certain  amount  of  complacency.  The 
terror  of  the  “frog-accident”  comes 
with  the  suddenness  of  its  possibility 
and  the  helplessness  of  the  situation. 
It  is  like  an  ice-water  bath  thrown  on  a 
sweating  person.  It  is  the  icy  hand  of 
death  come  to  clutch  at  the  throat  of 
warmest  hope  and  fondest  affections. 
As  such,  it  must  be  fearful;  but,  to  the 
person  habituated  to  fear  fear,  through 
knowing  the  deadly  effect  of  it,  the 
emotion  can  be  prepared  for,  greatly 
modified  and  possibly  counteracted,  by 
a prearrangement  with  the  emotional 
self  — that  which  Hudson  calls  the 
“subjective  mind.” 

To  be  effective  in  case  of  surprise, 
the  preparation  must  come  from  the 
habit-of-feeling,  “/  must  not  be  afraid  ; 
I must  not  be  afraid No  matter  what 


BALEFUL  EFFECTS  OF  FEAR.  85 

the  surprise,  the  emotional  self  must 
instantly  assert,  through  habit,  “ I must 
not  be  afraid '.” 

I have  not  had  experience  with  “ frog- 
accidents”  to  test  the  efficacy  of  my 
theory  of  schooled  suggestion,  but  I 
have  been  subject  to  surprises  that 
have  been  quite  as  fearful.  As  it  hap- 
pened, the  incident  I speak  of  was  not 
perilous,  but  it  had  all  the  appearance 
of  being  so  to  me,  when  I was  awak- 
ened from  sleep,  in  a hotel  in  New 
York  City,  by  suffocation,  to  find  my 
room  full  of  smoke  that  poured  in 
through  the  transom  and  through  the 
cracks  of  the  door  which  was  my  only 
means  of  escape. 

My  room  was  on  the  fifth  floor  of 
the  hotel,  and  the  house  had  the  repu- 
tation of  being  a “fire-trap.” 

As  soon  as  my  reasoning-self  had 
time  to  take  in  the  situation,  the  prob- 
ability of  being  burned  to  death  seemed 
almost  certain ; but  before  that  hap- 
pened— that  is,  before  the  reasoning- 


86 


HAPPINESS. 


self  had  analyzed  the  situation  — the 
habit-of-thought  self  had  asserted 
many  times,  and  constantly,  “ You  must 
not  be  afraid!  you  must  not  be  afraid; 
and,  as  a result,  I was  not  afraid ; and 
the  calm  of  the  moment  allowed  me  to 
measure  chances  and  arrange  expedi- 
ents, as  if  there  were  no  danger  immi- 
nent. 

It  was  a case  of  much  smoke  and 
little  fire,  but  there  were  those  in  the 
hotel  who  were  made  very  ill  by  the 
fright  of  it. 

If  I had  always  been  free  from  the 
emotion  of  fear,  and  had  not  been  a 
sorry  victim  to  it  in  some  special 
forms,  “natural  temperament’’  could 
be  urged  as  a cause  of  the  calm  I 
enjoyed  during  the  incident  related 
above ; but  such  is  not  the  case.  I 
have  been  subjected  to  shocks  of  vari- 
ous kinds,  incident  to  an  adventurous 
life,  that  have  been  powerful  impres- 
sions for  evil  upon  my  emotional  self, 
and  it  is  personal  experience  of  cure 


BALEFUL  EFFECTS  OF  FEAR.  87 

and  relief  that  I am  giving  in  support 
of  my  theory. 

The  experience  of  Mr.  George  Ken- 
nan,  the  Siberian  traveler,  and  bril- 
liant writer  and  lecturer,  relative  to 
fear  and  its  cure,  is  singularly  like  my 
own,  and  was  related  to  me  in  an  ex- 
change of  personal  confidences,  last 
year. 

The  Atlantic  Monthly  for  May,  1897, 
contains  an  excellent  account  of  Mr. 
Kennan’s  case,  and  I am  permitted  by 
the  publishers,  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mif- 
flin & Company,  to  reprint  it;  which  I 
have  done  under  Appendix  “B.” 

Fear  is  rarely  general  as  related 
to  different  causes  for  fearthought. 
I have  been  told  of  a case  of  specific 
fear  that  is  interesting  because  of  its 
unreasonableness.  It  was  the  case  of 
a filibuster  who  had  been  on  several 
raids  where  death  was  the  almost  cer- 
tain penalty  for  being  caught,  and 
where  the  chances  of  being  caught 
were  almost  certain.  On  the  fron- 


88 


HAPPINESS. 


tier  our  subject  was  known  as  a dare- 
devil, not  afraid  of  anything,  and  yet 
he  was  always  in  mortal  terror  of  a dark 
room.  In  infancy  he  had  been  scared 
into  obedience  by  tales  of  goblins  in  the 
dark,  and  he  had  never  rid  himself  of 
their  influence.  Anything  on  earth  he 
could  see  held  no  terror  for  him,  but 
he  could  not  see  the  phantoms  he  cre- 
ated in  the  dark,  and  was  therefore  a 
slave  to  fear  of  them.  It  is  probable 
that  the  bravado  of  his  active  life  was 
partly  caused  by  the  desire  to  “aver- 
age up”  on  courage,  and,  if  so,  the 
baleful  effects  of  fear  in  this  case  were 
very  far-reaching  and  destructive  to 
the  peace  of  society. 

General  experience  teaches  that 
whenever  you  find  a bully,  you  find  a 
yellow  streak  of  cowardice  somewhere 
in  his  composition ; and,  more  than 
probable,  bravado  is  assumed  by  him, 
in  order  to  “square”  himself  with  his 
own  self-respect. 


HOW  TO  ELIMINATE  FEAR. 

It  has  been  observed  that  the  rooting 
out  of  any  particular  phase  of  fear- 
thought,  weakens  the  strength  of  all  of 
the  other  phases.  For  instance,  sup- 
pression of  anger  and  worry  tends  to 
suppress  all  suspicion,  and  even  fear 
itself,  while  special  attack  upon  the 
fearthought  called  envy  will  percep- 
tibly diminish  the  tendency  to  jeal- 
ousy and  avarice.  There  seems  to  be 
such  close  relationship  between  all  of 
the  forms  of  fearthought,  that  what- 
ever affects  one,  affects  all. 

Fear  of  death  undoubtedly  underlies 
all  fearthought.  Fear  of  poverty,  fear 
of  accident,  fear  of  sickness,  all  reach 
further  than  these  calamities,  to  the 
possibility  of  death  resulting  from  them. 
In  this  way  we  can  trace  all  expres- 
sions of  fear,  either  directly  or  indi- 

89 


90 


HAPPINESS. 


rectly,  through  the  different  forms  of 
selfness,  to  fearthought  of  death. 

In  Menticulture  I suggested  the 
elimination  of  anger  and  worry  as  the 
roots  of  all  the  evil  passions.  On 
page  17,  however,  I gave  “fear”  as 
the  tap-root  of  the  evil  emotions,  in- 
cluding anger  and  worry,  and  stated 
my  reason  for  attacking  the  surface 
roots  best  known  and  associated  to- 
gether, rather  than  the  tap-root  itself. 
It  was  because  I believed  at  the  time 
Menticulture  was  written,  with  people 
in  general,  that  fear  was  a constituent 
weakness  of  all  consciousness,  and  only 
expressions  of  it  were  eliminable. 

I find  in  my  later  experience  in  prac- 
tice, however,  and  in  conveying  the 
suggestion  to  others,  that  fear  itself  is 
possible  to  be  rooted  out  by  the  force 
of  counter-suggestion  of  one  sort  or  an- 
other, and  that  there  is  no  mental  habit 
or  impression  that  cannot  be  counter- 
acted by  some  other  more  powerful 
habit  or  impression,  and  that  it  is  best 


HOW  TO  ELIMINATE  FEAR.  91 

to  attack  the  bottom  cause  of  all  weak- 
nesses at  once,  and  thereby  wage  war- 
fare upon  their  innermost  citadel. 

As  fearthought  is  the  parent  of  all 
the  evil  emotions,  so  is  fear  of  death 
the  first  of  all  the  causes  of  fear- 
thought. 

It  is  not  a difficult  matter  to  eliminate 
the  fear  of  death.  It  is  first  necessary 
to  do  away  with  any  dread  of  a lifeless 
human  body.  There  are  few  who  feel 
dread  of  the  flesh  of  animals  as  they 
see  it  hanging  in  the  stalls  of  the  butch- 
ers. There  is  no  more  reason  to  have 
a feeling  of  fear  in  connection  with  the 
sight  of  dead  human  flesh  than  there 
is  to  feel  uncomfortable  in  the  presence 
of  the  flesh  of  a lifeless  lamb  or  a 
lifeless  chicken. 

There  have  lived  people  who  were 
as  accustomed  to  seeing  human  flesh 
exposed  in  butchers’  shops  as  we  are 
accustomed  to  see  the  flesh  of  animals 
so  exposed,  and  there  is  an  engraving 
of  a cannibal  meat-stall  in  Huxley’s 


92 


HAPPINESS. 


“ Man’s  Place  in  Nature,”  copied  from 
an  old  book  of  travel  to  the  coast  of 
Africa,  which  Mr.  Huxley  offers  author- 
itatively. 

The  subject  may  seem  to  be  a grew- 
some  one  to  many  readers,  and  refer- 
ence to  the  customs  of  cannibals  may 
shock  their  supersensitive  habits  of 
thought,  but  the  object  is  sufficient  jus- 
tification. Such  may,  however,  soothe 
their  injured  feelings  by  remembering 
that  our  meat-selling  and  meat-eating 
customs  seem  as  inhuman  to  many 
Buddhists  as  do  the  customs  of  canni- 
bals to  us. 

If  we  value  essentials  impartially, 
soul  and  mind  count  above  everything, 
and  tissue  which  they  once  animated 
counts  for  nothing  when  they  have  left 
it,  no  matter  what  have  been  the  asso- 
ciations, especially  if  dread  of  the 
dead  tissue  inspires  emotions  that  are 
detrimental  to  the  welfare  of  soul  or 
mind. 

My  object  in  suggesting  a systematic 


HOW  TO  ELIMINATE  FEAR.  93 

reversal  of  our  feeling  towards  lifeless 
human  flesh  is  because  it  is  a basic 
cause  of  fear.  Remove  this  dread,  and 
half  of  the  terror  of  death  is  removed 
with  it. 

In  this  connection,  the  suggestion 
should  be  urged,  that  separation — as 
in  death  — is  unessential  as  compared 
with  the  privilege  of  having  known  a 
beloved  one,  and  that  appreciation  and 
gratitude  should  always  outweigh  re- 
gret in  relation  to  an  inevitable  change. 

All  of  the  observed  processes  of 
nature  teach  that  every  normal  change 
is  for  the  better,  and  the  change  called 
death  is  as  normal  as  the  change  called 
birth.  The  full  term  of  human  life 
is  but  a pin-point  in  the  great  span  of 
evolution.  How  unreasonable  it  is  to 
protest  the  measurement  of  the  breadth 
of  a pin-point  with  Him  who  doeth  all 
things  well ! 

Life  is  like  the  ticking  of  a clock; 
each  passing  of  the  pendulum  may  be 
a day  or  a year ; when  the  clock 


94 


HAPPINESS. 


strikes,  one  period  only  is  ended,  but 
a new  period  is  also  begun.  Why 
mourn  at  the  striking  of  the  clock!  A 
new  and  happier  hour  has  begun. 
Why  mourn  the  passing  on  of  a be- 
loved one!  For  to  Christian,  or  to 
Buddhist,  as  well  as  to  all  sentient  be- 
ings, a new  and  a better  life  has  then 
begun. 

The  attitude  towards  the  separation 
called  death  should  be  such  as  to  in- 
duce the  thought,  and  even  the  ex- 
pression, “ Pass  on,  beloved;  enter  into 
the  better  state  which  all  of  the  pro- 
cesses of  nature  teach  are  the  result  of 
every  change;  it  will  soon  be  my  time 
to  follow;  my  happiness  at  your  prefer- 
ment attend  you;  my  love  is  blessed 
with  that  happiness;  and  what  you 
have  been  to  me  remains,  and  will 
remain  forever.  Amen.” 

Sorrow  was  dignified  by  Christ.  He 
has  been  wrongfully  called  “ The  Man 
of  Sorrow.”  His  sorrow  was  for  the 
evils  which  men  suffered,  and  never 


HOW  TO  ELIMINATE  FEAR.  95 


was  caused  by  any  of  the  beneficent 
decrees  of  the  Father.  Protest  against 
the  decrees  of  the  Father  is  blasphemy. 
Some  forms  of  sorrow  are  blasphemy. 

Sorrow  and  optimism  do  not  go 
together.  Christ  was  (and  is)  the 
Supreme  Optimist,  and  taught  nothing 
but  optimism.  Tears  do  not  always 
express  sorrow.  Wherein  tears  ex- 
press selfishness,  especially  in  the  form 
of  anger,  they  are  bad.  Wherein  tears 
are  free  from  selfishness,  they  may  do 
no  great  harm.  In  such  case,  what 
may  seem  to  be  sorrow  may  be  an 
expression  of  loving  sympathy,  and, 
as  such,  may  be  good. 

Without  careful  analysis  of  the 
quality  of  the  emotion,  love  may  be 
thought  to  be  righteous  cause  for  fear- 
thought.  This  is  a vicious  thought. 
Nothing  is  righteous  that  is  harmful, 
and  fearthought  is  harmful.  Love, 
without  any  element  of  fearthought  in 
it,  is  infinitely  better  than  love  that  is 
tinctured  with  fearthought.  Fore- 


HAPPINESS. 


96 

thought  is  the  necessary  accompani- 
ment of  perfect  love,  but  fearthought 
is  its  enemy. 

Separation  can  be  made  to  gladden 
love  through  self-sacrifice.  Separation 
— as  in  death  — can  be  made  to  gladden 
love  by  supreme  self-sacrifice  to  the 
beloved  one  who  is  preferred  by  death, 
and  thereby  made  to  disarm  that  un- 
derlying fear  of  all  fears  — the  fear  of 
death. 

If,  however,  the  fear  of  lifeless 
human  flesh  is  eliminated,  the  fear  of 
death  itself  will  be  found  to  be  greatly 
modified.  From  this  point  the  elimi- 
nation of  special  pet  fears,  whether  of 
the  individual  or  of  the  community 
sort,  will  become  an  easy  matter,  as 
the  greater  is  but  the  sum  of  the  lesser. 

In  looking  for  means  with  which  to 
attack  so  great  an  enemy  as  fear,  either 
in  one’s  self  or  in  another,  any  weapon 
is  a good  weapon  that  is  found  to  be 
effective.  Logic  is  more  respectable, 
but  such  is  the  foolishness  of  many 


HOW  TO  ELIMINATE  FEAR.  97 

forms  of  fear  that  ridicule  is  more 
often  effective.  Appeal  to  honor,  self- 
respect,  love,  logic,  ridicule,  and  to  fear 
itself,  may  be  had  in  so  worthy  a cause 
as  the  vanquishing  of  the  arch-enemy 
of  growth  and  happiness. 

Old  soldiers  sometimes  admit  that 
their  courage  in  battle  has  been  the 
result  of  their  fear  of  seeming  to  be 
cowards.  When  the  far-reaching  and 
poisonous  effect  of  the  evil  of  fear- 
thought  is  properly  understood,  and 
the  possibility  of  its  elimination  gen- 
erally believed  in,  people  will  be  afraid 
to  be  afraid  — afraid  of  ridicule  and 
criticism,  as  well  as  afraid  of  evil  and 
unhealthful  effects.  The  cure  will  have 
been  homoeopathic,  in  that  like  has 
been  employed  to  cure  (or  kill)  like. 

Logic  is  the  most  rational  weapon, 
but  ridicule  is  sharper.  Logic  may  not 
cure  a robust  woman  of  the  woman- 
habit-of-thought  that  a mouse  is  a fear- 
some thing,  but  reference  to  the  fact 
that  it  is  ridiculous  for  a five-foot 


98 


HAPPINESS. 


woman  to  be  afraid  of  a two-inch 
mouse  may  effect  the  result,  especially 
when  it  is  known  that  the  mouse  is 
more  afraid  of  the  woman,  according 
to  his  capacity  for  fear,  than  it  is  pos- 
sible for  the  woman  to  be  afraid  of 
the  mouse. 

Acquaintance  is  another  effective 
cure.  It  may  not  be  necessary  that  all 
afflicted  ones  should  serve  an  appren- 
ticeship at  undertaking  in  order  to  be 
cured  of  fear  of  a lifeless  human  body, 
but  if  the  fear  of  a corpse  cannot  be 
eradicated  by  other  means,  it  is  worth 
while  to  do  that  or  anything  else,  no 
matter  how  uncanny  or  disagreeable, 
in  order  to  accomplish  the  object. 
So  necessary  is  the  eradication  of 
the  germ  principle  of  fear  to  the  culti- 
vation of  growth  and  happiness,  that  if 
it  is  found  that  fear  of  the  lifeless 
human  body  cannot  be  cured  otherwise, 
even  a real  apprenticeship  in  a hospital 
dissecting-room  would  be  a profitable 
expedient  as  a last  resort.  To  seek 


HOW  TO  ELIMINATE  FEAR.  99 

the  acquaintance  of  fearsome  insects 
and  animals,  through  close  observation 
and  study  of  their  habits,  is  better  than 
to  suffer  harm  from  a needless  preju- 
dice against  them. 

Cure  of  the  fear  of  one  dreaded  in- 
sect or  reptile  is  sure  to  modify  the 
fear  of  all  other  things  dreaded,  so  that 
the  difficult  part  of  the  cure  is  acquiring 
the  belief  that  it  is  possible,  and  mak- 
ing the  resolve  to  attempt  it. 

If  parents  realized  the  full  impor- 
tance of  the  eradication  of  fearthought 
from  the  minds  of  their  children,  they 
would  stop  immediately  all  other  occu- 
pation, and  rest  not  nor  be  content 
until  the  germ  of  fear  thought  in  their 
children  had  been  located  and  killed; 
and  those  skilled  in  such  search  and 
cure  would  become  the  physicians  most 
in  demand. 


HOW  TO  CURE  SPECIAL  FORMS  OF 
FEAR. 


Exciting  interest  in  the  intrinsic  beau- 
ties and  usefulness  of  things  thought 
to  be  disagreeable  or  dreadful,  is  an  ex- 
cellent way  of  curing  fear  of  them. 

I once  had  an  opportunity  of  ex- 
perimenting with  this  method  of  curing 
particular  fears  by  testing  it  on  a 
mother  and  children  whose  bHe  noir 
was  a thunderstorm. 

I had  seen  them  at  the  World’s 
Columbian  Exposition,  wrapt  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  great  displays  of  fire- 
works that  were  operated  on  the  lake 
front  of  the  Exposition  grounds  each 
evening.  I also  happened  to  be  pro- 
vided with  statistics,  showing  that  the 
chance  of  being  struck  by  lightning  was 
only  one  in  a great  many  thousand,  and 
that  if  one  were  to  seek  to  be  struck,  he 
would  have  to  wait  about  ten  thousand 


100 


HOW  TO  CURE. 


IOI 


years  for  his  average  turn.  I recalled 
the  greater  real  beauty  of  the  natural 
fireworks  of  the  summer  season,  and 
their  comparative  harmlessness.  This 
was  the  logic  of  it,  and  modified  some- 
what the  attitude  of  the  children,  as 
well  as  the  fear  of  the  mother,  relative 
to  lightning  and  thunder;  but  the  real 
cure  came  through  appreciative  sug- 
gestion and  acquaintance. 

On  the  approach  of  a storm  wherein 
lightning  might  be  expected,  and  even 
before  it  was  visible,  the  mother  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  assuming  a fright- 
ened expression,  of  gathering  the  chil- 
dren together,  of  cowering  in  a corner, 
and  sometimes  in  a closet,  in  fear  and 
trembling,  until  the  storm  had  passed. 
From  infancy  the  children  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  associating  something 
fearful  with  the  idea  of  lightning  and 
thunder,  and  had  never  had  a chance 
to  observe  their  beauties. 

I started  in  to  correct  the  bad  im- 
pressions, and  to  teach  the  attractive- 


102 


HAPPINESS. 


ness  of  storm  phenomena,  by  calling 
out,  on  the  approach  of  a storm,  some- 
what in  this  wise:  “ Oh!  children,  do 
you  remember  the  beautiful  fireworks 
at  the  Exposition?  Come  here  quick! 
let ’s  watch ; we  are  going  to  have  some- 
thing ten  times  more  beautiful,  and, 
oh!  such  big  booms  and  bangs.  Watch 
now!  ah!  that  wasn’t  much,  but  keep 
a-watching  and  we’ll  have  some  beau- 
ties. Crash!  bang!  blizzard!  My!  but 
wasn’t  that  a beauty?  Watch  sharp, 
now,  or  you  ’ll  miss  the  best  one, — what! 
afraid?  Why,  Alice,  afraid  of  a beau- 
tiful thing  like  that!  Nonsense!  Come 
here,  dear,  and  sit  in  my  lap  and  watch 
out  sharp,  and  then  you  can  t be  afraid. 
There!  that ’s  a little  lady.  Splendid!  I 
reckon  you  know  how  to  enjoy  some- 
thing beautiful,  as  well  as  any  one. 
Boom,  boom,  boom!  Did  you  ever  hear 
anything  so  grand?  Great  big  drums  up 
yonder.  I wonder  what  sort  of  a Fourth 
of  July  they  are  having?  Would  n’t 
World’s-Fair  fireworks  seem  tame  be- 


HOW  TO  CURE. 


103 


side  this?  And  think  of  it! — they  don’t 
cost  a cent,  and  they  are  clearing  the 
atmosphere  so  that  the  sun  will  shine 
brighter  to-morrow  than  it  ever  did. 
It  will  shine  for  us,  and  for  the  plants, 
and  for  the  butterflies.  My!  but  are  n’t 
we  lucky  to  have  good  eyes  and  good 
ears  when  such  things  are  going  on! 
and  don’t  we  pity  the  poor  little  blind 
and  deaf  children!  Does  lightning 
sometimes  strike  people  and  kill  them? 
Why,  yes,  once  in  a great,  great  long 
while;  but  when  it  does,  they  say  it  is 
the  pleasantest  sensation  possible. 
Don’t  you  mind  when  you  have  pleas- 
ant shivers,  what  a delightful  feeling  it 
is?  Well,  they  say  being  struck  by 
lightning  is  like  that  — only  more  so.  I 
have  never  had  the  experience  of 
being  killed  by  lightning,  of  course, 
but  when  my  turn  to  enter  the  next  life 
comes,  I hope  it  will  be  that  way;  but 
the  chances  of  being  that  lucky  are 
very  slim.  Somebody,  some  great 
schoolmaster  that  knows  almost  every- 


104 


HAPPINESS. 


thing,  has  calculated  that  if  a man 
wanted  to  be  struck  by  lightning  he 
would  probably  have  to  wait  about  ten 
thousand  years.  That  is  too  long.  Life 
is  delightful  as  it  is;  but  if  I had  to  wait 
even  a thousand  years  or  even  an  hun- 
dred years  more  for  my  promotion  that 
way,  I think  I would  rather  choose  a 
more  common  and  less  agreeable  way  ’ ’ ; 
and  so  on,  governed  by  the  interest  and 
the  effect  upon  the  children.  I im- 
pressed on  them  the  real  beauty  of  the 
storm,  and  taught  them  appreciation, 
to  take  the  place  of  fear. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  that  family 
no  longer  dreads  the  storm  cloud. 
The  suggestion  reversed  their  way  of 
looking  at  storms,  and  they  then  found 
great  beauty  in  them  and  ceased  to  fear 
them. 

Another  experience:  I once  had 

the  privilege  of  spending  some  time  in 
close  relations  of  friendship  to  a family 
composed  of  a widowed  mother  and 
several  children,  sons,  daughter,  neph- 


HOW  TO  CURE.  105 

ews  and  nieces.  A sister  of  the  mother, 
who  was  pronounced  to  be  an  incurable 
invalid,  had  come  from  her  Northern 
home  to  seek  relief  in  the  climate  of 
the  Southland.  It  is  impossible  to  im- 
agine more  tender  care  of  an  invalid. 
Each  member  of  the  family  vied  with 
the  others  in  offering  gentle  attentions, 
so  that  the  waning  life  was  filled  with 
happiness  that  made  invalidism  almost 
a pleasure,  as  being  the  cause  of  so 
much  loving  consideration. 

One  morning  the  life-light  flickered 
for  a little  and  then  went  out.  The 
usual  funeral  preparations  which  are 
the  custom  were  attended  to,  and  the 
remains  were  sent  away  to  the  far- 
distant  home,  and  the  family  burial-lot. 

While  the  remains  were  awaiting  the 
appointed  time  of  removal,  the  children 
of  the  family,  of  all  ages  and  both 
sexes,  passed  in  and  out  of  the  death- 
chamber,  by  day  or  by  night,  as  if  there 
had  been  no  death,  and  there  was  not 
a semblance  of  dread,  nor  fearthought 


io6 


HAPPINESS. 


nor  mourning.  It  was  such  a beautiful 
expression  of  loving  consideration,  un- 
marred by  dread  or  fearthought,  that 
one  might  well  choose  such  a time  and 
such  a place  and  such  environment  on 
the  occasion  of  one’s  passing  on  to  the 
better  life. 

If  it  be  possible  to  be  a spirit,  con- 
scious of  material  environment,  and 
in  such  guise  to  attend  one’s  own 
funeral,  which  would  be  the  envi- 
ronment of  choice?  Egotism,  disem- 
bodied, would  undoubtedly  choose  a 
scene  of  violent  mourning,  long  drawn 
out,  and  painful  to  as  many  as  possible. 
Loving  Unselfishness  would  as  certainly 
choose  a funeral  scene  such  as  I wit- 
nessed in  the  house  of  my  friends. 
Which  would  you  choose?  And  if,  as 
is  most  reasonable  to  suppose  from  ob- 
serving the  sequences  of  nature’s  proc- 
esses that  show  that  the  seed  of  a 
flower  has  a more  nearly  perfect  flower 
enfolded  within  itself,  spirits  also  be- 
come purer  by  each  unfolding  through 


HOW  TO  CURE. 


107 


the  release  called  death,  and  being  made 
pure  and  unegotistic  by  the  change, 
they  must  prefer,  if  they  have  the 
privilege,  to  have  their  old  home  re- 
mains viewed  with  loving  and  fearless 
consideration,  rather  than  with  fear- 
some dread  and  ostentatious  emotion. 

Then  let  us  abjure  fear  in  connec- 
tion with  death,  and  also  in  connection 
with  the  mortal  remains  of  the  beloved. 

If  the  conventional  premises  relative 
to  death  be  correct,  the  common  atti- 
tude towards  it  is  useless;  and  if  the 
hypothetical  premises  be  correct,  as  it 
is  better  to  suppose,  even  if  we  cannot 
assert  it,  the  common  attitude  is  worse 
than  useless,  for  it  is  both  harmful  and 
unjust.  If  we  cultivate  fear  and  mourn- 
ing in  connection  with  death,  we  are 
unjust  to  the  dead,  we  are  unjust  to  the 
living,  we  are  unjust  to  ourselves;  and, 
above  all,  cruel  to  the  tender  and  im- 
pressionable emotions  of  children,  to 
whom  we  are  constantly  leaving  lega- 
cies of  cowardice  and  ignorant  egotism, 


108  HAPPINESS. 

or  legacies  of  pure  suggestion,  love  and 
appreciation. 

Much  might  be  written  about  the 
subject  of  this  chapter,  and  many  illus- 
trations could  be  given  wherein  illogical 
fears  have  been,  or  can  be,  ridiculed 
away,  but  inasmuch  as  some  of  the  fol- 
lowing chapters  are  mainly  devoted  to 
this  purpose,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
more  than  suggest  a line  of  argument 
under  the  present  caption. 


THE  NOW-FIELD. 


Let  us  work  together  for  a season 
in  the  Now-Field. 

We  cannot  work  in  any  other  field, 
but  we  can  and  do  waste  much  val- 
uable time  in  trying  to  work  in  the 
past  or  in  the  future,  and  in  so  doing 
neglect  the  precious  now. 

For  recreation  we  may  pleasantly, 
and  perhaps  profitably,  speculate  as  to 
what  there  may  be  in  the  way  of  atoms 
finer  than  star-dust,  and  as  to  the  pos- 
sible degree  of  invisibleness  of  the 
ultimate  ether.  We  may  also  exercise 
and  strengthen  our  imagination  by  try- 
ing to  give  form  to  the  Source  of  it  all. 
Tiring  of  guessing  in  these  directions, 
we  may  vary  our  recreation  by  attempts 
to  peep  under  or  through  the  veil 
which  Nature  so  persistently  holds 
between  the  present  conscious  life  and 

109 


IIO 


HAPPINESS. 


the  one  we  hope  for  beyond  the  veil. 
It  can  do  no  harm  to  think  form  into  a 
forgotten  past  and  into  an  uncertain 
future,  if,  in  so  doing,  the  vital  and 
superprecious  now  be  well  guarded 
against  the  things  we  know  to  be  de- 
terrent to  the  best  growth  of  the  life- 
plant. 

In  considering  the  duty  of  the  now, 
let  us,  for  convenience  of  comparison, 
liken  life  to  an  agricultural  season  of 
one  year’s  duration.  We  find,  in  our- 
selves, that  the  seed  from  which  we 
have  unfolded  has  already  been  sown, 
and  the  life-plant  pretty  well  grown 
before  we  attain  consciousness  of  duty 
and  begin  to  think  independently.  If 
we  are  lucky,  we  have  been  taught 
early  what  the  real  object  of  life  is, 
our  duties  in  it,  and  the  true  values 
to  be  cultivated  in  connection  with  it. 

We  have  very  sensibly  learned  to 
get  in  out  of  the  wet  when  it  rains,  and 
many  other  useful  aids  to  comfort  as 
well  as  to  protection,  but  the  most  vital 


THE  NOW-FIELD. 


1 1 1 


assistants  of  growth  have  been  neg- 
lected, and  many  positive  deterrents  to 
growth  have  been  cultivated  by  those 
who  have  been  our  teachers,  and  hence 
it  behooves  us  to  look  to  our  habits  of 
thought  and  of  action  in  order  to  get 
rid  of  those  which  are  detrimental  to 
our  growth. 

Of  first  importance  is  the  care  of 
the  Now-Field. 

We  have  already  suggested,  and  it 
cannot  be  too  often  repeated,  that  the 
condition  favorable  and  necessary  to 
growth  is  that  of  harmony  — an  har- 
monious present  is  the  living  heir  and 
parent  of  all  harmonies — that  growth 
is  the  evident  object  of  life,  and  that 
when  anything  ceases  to  grow  it  begins 
to  die  — there  is  no  growth  except  in 
the  present,  and  no  cultivable  field 
other  than  the  Now-Field  — that  har- 
mony, through  one’s  ability  to  always 
furnish  the  concordant  note,  one’s  self, 
is  within  the  power  of  each,  regardless 
of  environment  or  physical  conditions, 


1 1 2 


HAPPINESS. 


if  only  present  conditions  and  environ- 
ment are  considered,  and  that  growth 
is  the  certain  result  of  harmony;  that 
our  function  relative  to  growth  is  only 
to  keep  deterrent  influences  out  of  the 
present;  that,  if  we  do  this,  Nature  never 
fails  to  develop  better  results  from  the 
unfolding  of  each  succession.  We  have 
learned  that  all  of  the  deterrents  we 
have  been  able  to  discover  and  classify 
are  phases  of  fearthought;  that  fear- 
thought  is  no  creation  of  the  present, 
but  is  sought  in  the  future  and  nour- 
ished on  the  life-blood  of  the  present 
— an  excrescent  and  altogether  para- 
sitic abnormality,  unnecessary  to  the 
thing  it  feeds  on. 

We  have  discovered,  in  our  search 
for  deterrents,  that,  if  encountered  in 
the  now,  they  are  easily  routed.  We 
have  also  discovered  that  the  longest 
life  is  but  a succession  of  nows.  If  so, 
how  easy  becomes  the  problem:  Work 
diligently  in  the  Now-Field. 

In  arguing  against  the  potency  of 


THE  NOW-FIELD. 


1 13 

anger  and  worry  and  other  expressions 
of  fearthought,  where  the  contention 
has  been  persisted  in  that  they  were 
necessary  evils,  and  amenable  only  to 
suppression,  not  to  elimination,  I have 
invariably  won  my  point  when  suddenly 
asking  the  question,  “ Are  you  angry 
or  worried  at  this  moment?”  by  the 
admission  of  my  opponent,  “ No;  not  at 
this  moment,  because  my  mind  is  occu- 
pied with  something  which  has  no  ele- 
ment of  worry  or  anger  in  it.”  The  re- 
plies vary,  of  course,  but  are  to  the 
same  effect.  I immediately  return  with 
the  question:  “ Is  not  all  time  but  a suc- 
cession of  nows,  and,  if  so,  cannot  all  of 
the  nows,  as  well  as  this  one,  be  ex- 
empt from  apprehension  and  irritation, 
by  continuing  to  think  of  pleasanter  and 
more  hopeful  and  helpful  things?” 
Each  succeeding  now  is  easier  of 
control  than  the  preceding  one  from 
which  it  learns  the  habit-of-control,  and, 
if  the  immanent  now  is  guarded,  all  the 


HAPPINESS. 


114 

nows  that  follow  will  take  care  of  them- 
selves. 

As  we  have  observed,  we  need  not 
think  of  the  growing  if  we  are  only- 
diligent  in  keeping  fearthought  out  of 
our  minds.  Nature  will  do  abundant 
growing  for  us,  and  if  we  do  not  seek 
fearthought  beyond  the  now,  we  will 
have  nothing  to  keep  out.  It  is  easier 
than  not! 

Does  it  not  seem  very  easy  when 
one  thinks  reasonably  about  it?  If 
we  confine  our  efforts  to  the  Now- 
Field,  we  leave  our  enemy  out  in  the 
cold  by  the  comfortable  process  of 
non-invitation.  Therefore,  let  us  work 
together  for  a season  in  the  Now-Field. 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


FEARTHOUGHT. 

Fear  is  fear  thought  only. 

Fear  is  caused  by  the  self-imposed  or 
self-permitted  suggestion  of  inferiority. 

Fear  is  not  a physical  thing,  but  it 
causes  physical  derangement. 

Fearthought  is  self-imposed,  and  is 
therefore  unnecessary. 

Fearthought,  being  evil  and  un- 
necessary, is  therefore  not-respectable. 

Fearthought  is  a habit  which  is 
altogether  irrational  and  illogical. 

Fearthought  is  a parasite  which,  in 
civilized  man,  is  entirely  abnormal. 

Fearthought  can  be  eliminated  from 
the  mind. 


1 18 


HAPPINESS. 


* * * 

Fearthought  is  the  tap-root  of  all 
evil  and  trouble. 

Anger  and  worry  are  expressions  of 
fearthought. 

All  forms  of  worry  are  directly 
caused  by  fearthought. 

Anger  is  directly  or  indirectly  caused 
by  fearthought. 

All  of  the  evil  passions  which  group 
themselves  under  the  class-names  of 
anger  and  worry  are  therefore  the  re- 
sult of  fearthought. 

Fearthought  is  the  result  of  egotism. 
Egotism  is  the  reverse,  or,  rather,  per- 
verse, of  Egociation.  It  is  caused  by  self- 
separation from  Co-operative-Strength, 
from  Universal-Good  — from  God. 

Selfishness  is  the  fruit  and  the  evi- 
dence of  egotism. 

Fearthought  is  the  first  expression 
of  selfishness. 

Fearthought  is,  therefore,  the  tap- 
root of  evil  and  consequent  unhappiness. 
* * * 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


119 

* * * 

Forethought  invites  success. 

Fearthought  invites  failure. 

The  future  is  the  vital  part  of  life 
— the  dead  past  furnishing  only  food 
for  reminiscence  and  experience. 

Consideration  of  the  future  must 
partake  of  either  forethought  or  fear- 
thought — it  cannot  partake  of  both  at 
the  same  time. 

Fearthought  is  in  no  way  related  to 
forethought  except  as  the  shadow  is 
related  to  the  tree  behind  which  it  hides 
from  the  light  — the  light  of  right- 
thinking. 

Forethought  stimulates,  aids,  fos- 
ters, encourages,  and  insures  success  of 
honest  aims — its  child  is  growth. 

Fearthought  relaxes,  hampers,  stran- 
gles, and  thereby  retards  growth,  to  the 
end  of  dwarfing,  if  not  killing,  it — its 
children  are  paralysis,  disease,  unhap- 
piness and  death. 

Forethought  is  a producer. 

Fearthought  is  a robber. 


120 


HAPPINESS. 


* * 4t 

Forethought  is  constructive. 

Fearthought  is  destructive. 

Forethought  suggests  the  building 
of  houses  for  shelter  wherein  there  can 
be  no  fearthought  about  storms. 

Fearthought  fusses  and  worries  over 
the  possibility  of  not  getting  the  shel- 
ter ready  in  time  to  protect  against  in- 
clement weather,  and  thereby  wastes 
the  available  energy,  and  delays  the 
completion  of  the  shelter. 

Forethought  calmly  proceeds  to  per- 
form a useful  task  without  fearthought 
of  the  extent  of  it.  It  does  all  that  it 
can  do  — it  can  do  no  more. 

Fearthought  wrings  its  hands,  and 
wastes  its  time  in  saying,  “ How  can  I 
ever  do  it?” 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  determin- 
ing between  forethought  and  fear- 
thought. 

Whatever  thought  is  constructive, 
is  forethought. 

Whatever  thought  is  destructive  or 
wasteful  is  fearthought. 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


I 2 I 


# * * 

Feartnought  is  the  devil. 

Fearthought  is  the  arch-enemy  of 
man,  whose  influence  can  be  traced  in 
every  form  of  calamity  and  unhappi- 
ness. 

Fearthought  is  the  cause  of  inde- 
cision, suspicion,  apprehension,  jeal- 
ousy, envy,  indifference,  self-degrada- 
tion and  all  other  forms  of  weakness 
which  separate  the  afflicted  from  the 
tide  of  success  and  happiness,  and  which 
condemn  them  to  the  whirling  and  rest- 
less eddy  of  isolation  and  non-progres- 
sion. 

Fearthought  is  blasphemy,  because 
it  gives  the  lie  to  the  fixed  promises  of 
God,  as  evidenced  by  experience. 

Fearthought  is  like  carbonic-acid 
gas  pumped  into  one’s  atmosphere.  It 
causes  mental,  moral  and  spiritual  as- 
phyxiation, and  sometimes  death  — 
death  to  energy,  death  to  tissue  and 
death  to  all  growth. 

Fearthought  is  a liar , and  the  father 
of  lies. 

* * * 


122 


HAPPINESS. 


* * • * 

Quarantine  against  Fearthought 
first. 

Fearthought  is  more  contagious 
than  any  other  disease. 

Fearthought  is  the  chief  distributer 
and  promoter  of  other  contagious 
diseases. 

Fearthought  can  be  guarded  against 
by  anti-toxic  means,  just  as  smallpox 
and  diphtheria  can  be  guarded  against. 

The  serum  to  be  used  against  fear- 
thought is  intelligent,  persistent  right 
suggestion. 

Fearthought  can  also  be  quarantined 
against,  the  same  as  other  contagious 
diseases. 

Society  can  quarantine  against  fear- 
thought by  refusing  to  tolerate  it  as  a 
necessity  of  civilized  life  — by  classing 
it  as  not-respectable,  and  by  refusing 
to  feed  it  with  sympathy. 

Quarantine  against  fearthought  in 
the  individual  is  an  easy  matter  to  any 
one  who  will  learn  that  it  is  only  evil 
and  never  good. 

Fearthought  should  be  kept  “ without 
the  gates!' 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


123 


* * * 

Forethought  for  others  is  the  most 
intelligent  altruism. 

Forethought  is  the  natural  condi- 
tion, but  can  exist  only  in  the  absence 
of  fearthought. 

Forethought  growing  out  of  dis- 
agreeable or  disastrous  experience  is  a 
useful  and  worthy  fruit;  but  fear- 
thought  taken  from  the  same  exper- 
ience adds  to  the  evil. 

If  a child  be  guarded  against  fear- 
thought,  he  will  enjoy  immunity  from  it 
during  life  — a life  twice  or  thrice  pro- 
longed in  consequence.  Parents  should 

note  the  responsibility. 

* * * 

The  consensus  of  the  experience  of 
parents,  of  physicians,  of  biologists,  and 
of  everyone  who  has  observed  child- 
life,  is  that  the  premises  and  deduc- 
tions here  given  are  correct,  but  as  yet 
there  has  been  no  systematic  effort 
made  to  eliminate  fearthought  out  of 
the  atmosphere  of  children,  as  there 
has  been  to  eliminate  weeds,  malaria, 
contagious  diseases,  and  other  evils. 
Society  should  unite  for  defense  against, 
and  the  extermination  of,  childhood  s 
worst  enemy. 


124 


HAPPINESS. 


* * * 

Fearthought  is  the  most  pregnant 
cause  of  disaster  and  death. 

Whoever  teaches  fearthought  to  a 
child,  by  either  legend  or  example, 
may  be  a murderer  by  so  doing. 

Whoever  permits  or  nurses  fear- 
thought within  himself,  sows  the  seed 
of  suicide. 

Whoever  robs  a child  of  the  free- 
dom of  mind  with  which  nature  prefers 
to  endow  it,  whether  it  be  through  pre- 
natal suggestion  or  through  suggestion 
given  after  birth,  is  more  a thief  than 
one  who  robs  it  of  its  patrimony  of 
goods  or  lands. 

Whoever  teaches  or  permits  a child 
to  suffer  fearthought  may  never  know 
the  end  of  the  disturbance  caused  there- 
by. Lying,  stealing,  avarice,  suicide 
and  murder  may  lie  within  the  wake 
of  its  influence. 

If  parents  have  wronged  their  chil- 
dren unwittingly,  they  may  yet  correct 
the  infliction  by  right  example  and  by 
right  counter-suggestions,  lovingly,  pa- 
tiently, persistently  and  religiously 
given  until  the  evil  has  been  eradicated. 

Fearthought  is  the  seed  of  Suicide . 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


125 


* * 

Freedom  is  a Birthright. 

Civilized  Society  insures  Freedom. 

The  author  has  had  much  expe- 
rience within  the  past  few  years  which 
teaches  that  fearthought  itself,  and 
tendency  to  fearthought,  are  bad  habits 
of  the  mind,  that  can  be  entirely 
counteracted  if  so  desired,  and  if  the 
desire  be  accompanied  by  reasonable 
assistance  on  the  part  of  the  afflicted 
ones. 

Fearthought  is  the  last  relic  of 
animal  suspicion  to  be  located,  ana- 
lyzed and  dispelled.  When  it  is 
entirely  killed ; then,  and  only  then, 
will  man  become  free— free  to  grow, 
free  to  appreciate  his  divine  inheri- 
tance and  free  to  enjoy  it  as  ordained. 
As  in  agriculture  and  in  horticulture, 
so  in  menticulture,  and  its  contingent, 
physiculture,  will  it  be  found  that  de- 
terrents to  perfect  growth  can  be  eradi- 
cated, and  that  if  attention  to  the 
germ-eradication  of  the  deterrents  is 
intelligent  and  persistent,  God  will 
surely  develop  perfect  growth  and  the 
perfect  fruit  of  happiness. 

Freedom  is  easier  than  not; 


126 


HAPPINESS. 


* * * 

Fearthought  is  the  result  of  igno- 
rance or  perversity. 

Fearthought  which  is  perverse  is 
criminal. 

Fearing  for  others  is  criminal,  be- 
cause it  not  only  depresses  and  weakens 
them,  but  because  it  robs  them  of  some 
part  of  the  strength  that  encourage- 
ment and  hopeful  thought  would  give 
them. 

Parents  who  do  not  wish  to  poison 
the  natural  energy  of  their  children  by 
depression  and  weakness,  should  learn 
the  effect  of  telepathic  influence  for 
good  or  for  evil,  and  thereby  know  that 
all  of  the  expressions  of  fearthought 
are  rank  poisons. 

Parents  hold  the  key  to  character. 

Whenever  parents  allow  or  teach 
their  children  to  have  fearthought, 
they  foster  in  them  the  temptation  to 
lie  and  steal. 

Crime  lurks  in  fearthought. 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


127 


* * * 

Ignorance  is  not  bliss. 

Ignorance  can  no  longer  be  accepted 
as  an  excuse  for  the  toleration  of  fear. 

Thought  precedes  every  emotion  and 
every  act  of  life.  It  must  have  no 
element  of  fear  in  it,  if  it  is  to  lead  up 
and  on. 

Habit-of -thought  asserts  itself  on  all 
occasions.  Habit-of- feeling  is  the  truer 
description,  for  the  reason  that  it  is 
the  emotional  self  and  not  the  thought- 
self  that  first  responds  to  surprise. 

Habit-of-thought  or  habit-of-feeling 
can  be  trained  to  respond  to  surprise, 
with  “I  must  not  be  afraid,”  as  easily  as 
it  is  permitted  to  respond  with  the 
cowardly  dictum,  “I  am  afraid.” 

If  one  have  the  habit-of-fearthought 
in  any  form  or  degree,  surprise  may 
cause  it  to  inspire  rash  action  which 
may  end  in  disaster.  More  lives  are 
lost  through  jumping  into  danger  un- 
der the  impulse  of  fearthought,  than 
are  ever  saved  by  it.  Calm  fore- 
thought is  the  better  friend  in  a case  of 
peril  than  quaking  fearthought. 

/ must  not  be  afraid! 

* * * 


128 


HAPPINESS. 


^ # 

Fearthought  is  a dissembler. 

Fearthought  is  a very  dangerous 
enemy,  because  it  habitually  masquer- 
ades in  the  garb  of  forethought. 

Many  earnest  persons  who  desire  to 
cultivate  only  the  best  thought,  believe 
that  fearthought  is  forethought,  and 
invite  and  nurse  it  as  such. 

The  lexicographers  even,  have 
failed  to  separate  fearthought  from 
forethought,  and  hence  it  does  not 
appear  in  the  dictionaries  under  its 
specific  descriptive  appellation. 

«•  * 45- 

Let  fear  be  disguised  no  longer.  It 
is  a child  of  ignorant  or  perverse 
imagination.  It  is  ie&rthought  only. 
It  is  always  irrational  and  illogical.  It 
has  no  element  of  good  nor  of  protec- 
tion in  it.  Separated  from  forethought, 
fearthought  causes  only  paralysis  and 
death,  and  neither  energizes  nor  saves 
life.  It  is  the  devil.  It  is  the  result  of 
false  premises  or  impressions,  but  can 
be  counteracted  by  logical  premises  and 
right  impressions. 

Fearthought  is  a masquerader. 


PERTINENT  PAGES.  1 29 

* * * 

The  timid  are  the  most  impres- 
sionable, and  can  be  cured  of  fear- 
thought  by  intelligent,  persistent, 
counter-suggestion. 

Impressibility  is  as  powerful  an  aid 
to  good  or  right  suggestion  as  it  is  to 
bad  or  false  suggestion.  Differently 
used,  an  element  of  weakness  becomes 
an  element  of  strength.  In  a matter  of 
mind-accomplishment  no  one  need  say 
“I  can’t,”  for  mind  is  what  it  most 
earnestly  wishes  to  be. 

Limiting  weaknesses  there  are,  at 
present,  but  these  are  generally  found 
in  asylums.  A crusade  against  fear- 
thought  would,  within  one  generation, 
make  asylums  unnecessary. 

Average  intelligence  can  be  cleared 
of  fearthought.  A crusade  against 
fearthought  would  immeasurably  raise 
the  average  of  intelligence. 

Let  no  one  deprecate  himself  or  his 
fellows  as  to  his  or  their  possibilities. 
The  timid  may  become  courageous; 
the  weak  may  become  strong;  the  sick 
may  become  well,  and  the  unhappy  may 
become  happy,  by  the  reversal  of  the 
attitude  of  their  energy  toward  life’s 
problems. 

Courage  is  a birthright. 


130 


HAPPINESS. 


* *-  * 

Fearlessness  of  death  insures  the 
strongest  love  of  life. 

No  one  can  know  what  it  is  to  ap- 
preciate life  at  its  best  until  he  has 
ceased  to  have  any  suspicion  of  dread 
of  death. 

No  one  can  realize  the  keenest  en- 
joyment of  life  until  he  has  grown  to 
feel — appreciate  — that  this  life  is  an 
important  stage  of  an  evolutionary 
process,  in  which  the  dawning  of  spirit- 
ual possibilities  opens  up  the  realm  of 
divine  existence  to  him,  and  introduces 
to  his  consciousness  that  appreciation 
of  God  which  gives  birth  to  love,  growth 
and  happiness. 

When  fearthought  is  entirely  eradi- 
cated from  the  mind  by  the  elimination 
of  the  basic  fear  — the  fear  of  death  — 
man  begins  to  feel  the  responsibility  of 
growing  his  best,  of  ripening  in  natural 
manner,  and  of  dropping  into  the  lap 
of  Mother  Earth  only  when  he  has  in- 
stilled into  himself  the  richest  and 
sweetest  juices  of  an  appreciative  and 
altruistic  life. 

Fear  not  Death  if  you  would  know 
and  love  life. 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


131 

* * * 

Mother-thought  is  the  strongest  of 
all  thought. 

Voluntary  motherhood  is  the  bravest 
of  all  acts  common  in  life. 

Whoever  teaches  a child  to  be  fear- 
less, builds  greater  than  she  can  ever 
know,  for  fearlessness  in  one  inspires 
courage  in  many;  and  as  courage  in- 
spires strength  and  causes  action,  there 
is  no  end  to  what  may  grow  out  of  the 
fearless  influence  of  the  frailest  and 
physically  weakest  of  women,  and  any 
young  mother,  in  the  quiet  and  seclu- 
sion of  a modest  home,  can  set  in  motion 
vibrations  of  strength  and  fearless- 
ness that  may  result  in  the  building 
of  a great  city  or  the  invention  of  some 
world-emancipating  tool  of  progress. 

All  great  accomplishments  can 
be  traced  back  to  mother-influence. 
Mother-muscle  may  be  wanting,  but 
mother-thought  rules  the  world. 

Mother-thought  is  always  brave- 
thought  in  one  emergency,  and  there- 
fore can  be  strong  in  all  emergencies. 

Mother-thought  rules  the  world. 

Mother-  thought  blesses  life. 


132 


HAPPINESS. 


* * * 

All  water  is  pure  water. 

It  is  impurities  within  water 
that  muddy  it. 

All  men  are  innately  good. 

It  is  the  presence  of  false  impres- 
sions, the  result  of  false  suggestions, 
that  makes  men  selfish  and  bad. 

There  is  no  impurity  in  water  that 
cannot  be  removed  by  some  means 
within  the  reach  of  chemistry,  and 
there  is  likewise  no  bad  suggestion  im- 
pressed on  a sane  human  mind  that 
cannot  be  counteracted  by  some  right 
and  good  suggestion. 

In  your  judgment  of  men,  judge  the 
sum  of  their  opportunities  and  the 
quality  of  their  environing  atmosphere, 
and  not  the  individuals  themselves.  It 
will  aid  you  to  a more  just  apprecia- 
tion of  the  possible  goodness  of  your 
neighbors,  and  greatly  help  to  conserve 
your  own  happiness,  through  the  dif- 
fusion of  the  warm  blood  of  charitable 
impulse. 

Mould  coiiditions  aright,  and  men 
will  grow  good  to  fit  them. 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


133 


* * * 

The  perfect  man  is  the  harmonious 
man. 

The  perfection  of  anything  is  de- 
pendent upon  the  perfection  of  all  its 
parts. 

Good  society  is  made  up  of  good 
individuals ; individuals  are  measured 
by  their  qualities  of  mind  and  char- 
acter ; and  mind  and  character  are 
pure  and  good  according  as  their  con- 
stituent elements  are  pure  and  good. 

Fearthought  is  a weak  element  of 
mind  and  its  influence  on  character  is 
blighting. 

In  chemistry  and  in  mechanics  we 
analyse  and  test  with  greatest  care  the 
material  we  use,  to  learn  its  value  as 
related  to  our  purpose.  If  it  have  any 
element  of  weakness  we  discard  it. 

Measure,  and  weigh  well,  thought 
about  the  future;  if  it  partake  of  fear- 
thought,  expel  it  from  the  mind,  for 
it  is  evil;  if  it  be  filled  with  strength, 
and  hope,  and  confidence,  nurse  it  ten- 
derly, for  it  is  good. 

Harmony  is  strength. 


134 


HAPPINESS. 


* * * 

Forethought  is  strong  thought. 

Fearthought  is  weak  thought. 

Nervousness  is  frequently  discredit- 
able, and,  therefore,  not-respectable. 

Nervousness  is  the  “scapegoat”  for 
much  cowardice,  ignorance  and  per- 
version, sometimes  of  prenatal,  but 
generally  of  post-natal,  origin.  It  is  not 
as  respectable  as  scrofula,  for  the  rea- 
son that  scrofula  may  have  been  in- 
herited or  contracted  by  the  accident 
or  evil  doing  of  another,  and  can  be 
corrected  only  by  process  of  regenera- 
tion; while  nervousness  is  an  expres- 
sion or  reflection  of  fearthought  which 
can  be  corrected  by  one’s  own  right- 
thinking. 

Whoever  is  not  nervous  when  he 
is  asleep  need  not  be  nervous  when  he 
is  awake. 

Eminent  physicians  have  recently 
authorized  the  above  assertions  rela- 
tive to  nervousness.  If  it  is  evil  and 
unnecessary,  it  is,  therefore,  not-re- 
spectable. 

When  nervous,  seek  within  the  habit - 
of -thought  for  a cause. 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


135 


* * * 

Attraction  rules  the  universe. 

The  rivalry  between  attraction  and 
counter-attraction  is  friendly. 

Evolution  is  the  result  of  being  at- 
tracted to  increase  and  to  growth,  and 
not  the  result  of  being  pushed  to  growth. 

All  plant  life  inclines  towards  the 
light  and  the  sun. 

Plant  life  that  is  strong  enough  to 
withstand  the  storms,  turns  its  back  in 
protest  to  the  wind. 

Pessimists  snarlingly  assert  that  at- 
traction is  the  pushing  of  desire  for 
change,  but  pessimists  are  diseased 
themselves,  and  therefore  call  things 
by  wrong  names,  and  give  the  wrong 
construction  to  everything. 

Appreciation  and  resultant  Love  are 
caused  by  attraction,  and  not  by  fear. 

Whatever  is  attracted  forward  or 
upward,  will  remain  in  advance  or 
above. 

Forethought  is  eagerly  receptive  and 
seeks  progress  through  attraction. 

Fearthought  pushes  to  action  by  its 
own  cowardice,  and  accomplishes  noth- 
ing useful. 

Altruism  is  a powerful  magnet;  good 
men  are  “ as  true  as  steel!' 


1 36 


HAPPINESS. 


* # * 

Consideration  is  practical  altruism. 

Consideration  for  others  is  evidenced 
by  desiring  to  do  for  them  what  is 
most  desired  by  them,  or,  what  is  best 
for  them.  It  assumes  no  superiority. 

Consideration  is  “catching,”  and  the 
easiest  way  to  accomplish  one’s  own 
desires,  in  connection  with  others,  is  to 
suggest  consideration  by  consideration. 

No  one  ever  “lost  a trick,  or  missed 
a meal,”  by  being  considerate;  and  sim- 
ple, unaffected  consideration  has  often 
been  the  means  of  adding  great  posses- 
sions to  its  own  richness. 

“After  you,”  will  unravel  a crowd 
quicker  than  any  pushing  to  be  first. 

Fearthought,  and  the  selfishness 
growing  out  of  it,  are  the  origin  of  all 
lack  of  consideration  for  others;  and 
contact  with  others,  and  the  every-day 
amenities  of  life  furnish  constant  op- 
portunity for  attacking  one  of  the 
strongest  expressions  of  the  disease  of 
fearthought  by  practice  of  altruistic 
consideration. 

The  first  requisite  of  gentility  is 
consideration. 


PERTINENT  PAGES. 


137 


* * * 

Happy  Day! 

“Good  morrow,”  “good  day,”  “good 
morning,”  and  “good  evening,”  were 
originally  intended  to  have  the  same 
significance  as  our  opening  saluta- 
tion, but  now  they  have  generally  be- 
come stale  and  mean  no  more  than 
“how  are  y — ” “how  d’y”  and  other 
perfunctory  greetings  that  are  ridicu- 
lous when  rendered  with  an  inflection 
that  resembles  a grunt. 

Elsewhere  it  is  related  how  “ happy 
day”  is  used  in  some  families  to  greet 
the  morning. 

What  humanity  is  suffering  from  is 
a restriction  of  affections,  and  an  effu- 
sion of  fears. 

People  are  afraid  of  being  frank  and 
therefore  cultivate  the  sulks,  suffer  and 
become  ill  from  the  repression. 

If  you  cannot  greet  the  morning 
and  likewise  every  living  thing  and 
every  inanimate  thing  that  there  is 
with  “ Happy  Day,”  you  had  better 
take  medicine  for  the  trouble,  for  you 
are  really  ill. 

Happy  Day! 


138 


HAPPINESS. 


* * * 

Forethought  is  Optimism. 

All  good  men  are  optimists. 

The  contrastive  definitions  of  “ op- 
timism,” and  “pessimism”  and  “con- 
tent,” as  given  by  Rev.  Dr.  Newel 
Dwight  Hillis  in  an  address  on  optim- 
ism, which  the  author  had  the  pleasure 
of  hearing,  are  in  themselves  an  epit- 
ome of  good  suggestion  relative  to 
the  profitable  attitude  toward  the 
past,  the  present  and  the  future. 

Said  Dr.  Hillis,  “The  pessimist  cries, 
‘all  is  ill,  and  nothing  can  be  well’;  the 
idle  dreamer  assumes  that  ‘ all  is  well,’ 
but  the  optimist  declares  that  ‘ all  has 
not  been  ill,  and  all  has  not  been  well 
— all  is  not  ill,  and  all  is  not  well  — but 
all  can  be  and  therefore  shall  be  well.’  ” 

Appreciation  of  ever-present  bless- 
ings— the  sun,  the  birds,  the  perfume 
of  the  flowers,  the  mist,  the  constant 
changes  in  the  aspect  of  nature,  the 
love  of  friends,  the  hurdles  that  are 
met  and  cleared  at  a bound,  and  even 
the  obstructions  that  Providence  places 
in  the  wrong  road , make  them  all  seem 
to  chant  in  chorus, — “ No  matter  what 
has  been';  no  matter  what  is ; all  can 
be  and  shall  be  well.” 

Optimism  is  life. 

* * * 


PERTINENT  PAGES.  1 39 

•K-  * * 

Fearthought  inspires  Pessimism. 

Pessimism  is  a false  prophet. 

It  would  certainly  seem  to  be  in  the 
interest  of  freedom  if  the  utterances  of 
evil  foreboding  and  pessimistic  proph- 
esy were  frowned  upon,  if  pessimists 
were  avoided  as  lepers  are  avoided, 
and  if  their  effect  on  growth  and  devel- 
opment were  to  measure  the  merit  or 
demerit  of  thoughts  or  teachings,  as 
well  as  of  actions. 

Society’s  duty  toward  the  individ- 
ual is  wisely  to  prevent  him  from  doing 
harm,  either  to  himself  or  to  others. 
All  experience  teaches  that  pessimism 
is  generally  lying  prophesy.  To  pro- 
hibit false  prophesy,  that  can  only 
injure  both  the  maker  and  the  hearer 
of  it,  would  seem,  then,  to  be  not  only 
the  right,  but  the  duty,  of  society. 
To  prohibit  bad  suggestion  as  well  as 
bad  action,  when  action  is  known  to  be 
but  materialized  or  realized  sugges- 
tion, would  seem  to  be  a duty  of 
society. 

Pessimism  is  poison. 


140 


HAPPINESS. 


45  45  45 

“ Perfect  Love  Casteth  out  Fear.” 

But: 

Perfect  Love  cannot  exist  until  Fear 
is  first  cast  out. 

* * 45- 

Forethought  is  essential  to  cultiva- 
tion and  happiness. 

But: 

Fearthought  in  forethought  prevents 
cultivation  and  kills  happiness. 

* * 45- 

Fear  is  Habit-of-Fearthought  only, 
and  is  self-imposed,  or  imported. 

It  is,  therefore: 

Unnecessary. 

45  45  45 

Fearthought,  being  unnecessary,  is 
a weak,  or  a cowardly,  self-infliction. 

It  is,  therefore: 

Not-Respectable. 

45  45  45 

Fearthought,  the  arch-enemy  of 

mankind,  can  be  eliminated  from  the 
Habit -of- Thought  — can  be  entirely 
eradicated. 

But: 


NOT  BY  REPRESSION. 


PERTINENT  PAGES.  I41 

•»  * ■55- 

Man,  equipped  with  divine  selection , 
is  the  only  cultivator  in  Nature.  Na- 
ture does  all  growing  herself,  and  as- 
signs all  cultivating  to  Man. 

But: 

He  cultivates  only  through  removing 

deterrents  to  growth. 

* * 

Man’s  value,  as  assistant  in  evolu- 
tion, consists  in  his  ability  to  create  har- 
monic conditions  favorable  to  growth 
through  the  exercise  of  divine  selection. 
But: 

He  secures  perfect  harmony  only  by 

first  harmonizing  himself. 

* * * 

Happiness  is  “the  aim  and  the  end 
of  existence.” 

But: 

Happiness  can  rest  only  in  Har- 
mony, Appreciation,  Love  and  Altru- 
ism. 

* * * 

Happiness  is  “The  Greatest  Thing 
in  the  World.” 

But: — If  sought  aright , 

It  is  easier  than  not! 


V 


SUGGESTIONS  IN  MENTICULTURE. 


STOP  IMPORTING;  OR  ERADICATION 
VERSUS  REPRESSION. 


The  attitude  of  Man  towards  his 
weaknesses  is  commonly  that  of  re- 
pression. He  assumes  that  fearthought, 
and  fear,  and  anger,  and  worry,  and  all 
of  the  evil  passions  are  inherent  things 
that  may  be  repressed  but  not  eradi- 
cated; modified  but  not  eliminated; 
kept  under  partial  control  but  not  got- 
ten rid  of;  and  cut  down  below  the  sur- 
face, so  as  not  to  be  exposed  to  the 
world,  but  not  rooted  out  entirely. 

By  some  persons  it  is  even  thought 
to  be  an  accomplishment  of  great  merit 
to  acknowledge  strong  roots  of  carnal 
weakness  and  to  then  succeed  in  hiding 
any  outward  expression  of  them.  In 
others,  equally  well-meaning,  the  ag- 
gressive and  consumptive  passions  are 
nursed  and  exhibited  as  evidences  of 


1 45 


146 


HAPPINESS. 


unusual  sensitiveness  and  virility 
appertaining  to  fineness,  goodness  and 
greatness.  It  is  not  long  since  it  was  the 
custom  of  clergymen  in  some  denomina- 
tions to  assume  unworthiness  for  them- 
selves in  order  to  glorify  the  redeeming 
power  of  the  Saviour,  notwithstanding 
all  of  Christ’s  teachings  inculcated  that 
true  forgiveness  consisted  in  the  simple 
process  of  ceasing  to  have  — ceasing 
to  admit,  or  import.  When,  in  former 
times,  priesthood  was  degraded  to  a 
business  — an  occupation  for  a living, 
or  for  convenience  or  power  — it  was 
natural  that  the  difficulty  of  the  ser- 
vice rendered  the  laity  by  the  priests 
should  be  exaggerated  so  as  to  com- 
mand the  highest  respect,  the  greatest 
power  and  the  largest  compensation. 
Sin  was  made  to  seem  powerful  and 
ever-present  in  order  that  the  service 
rendered  in  keeping  it  in  check  might 
seem  important  and  everlasting.  Under 
such  circumstances,  and  especially  when 
the  one  great  unpardonable  sin  against 


STOP  IMPORTING. 


147 


the  church  was  that  of  doubting  the 
teachings  of  these  teachers,  how  almost 
impossible  must  it  have  been  for  the 
laity  to  rise  superior  to  evil,  when  those 
whose  profession  it  was  to  combat  it, 
found  it  so  potent  an  enemy,  and  who, 
thereby,  filled  the  atmosphere  of  thought 
with  dense  clouds  of  evil  suggestion. 

It  is  fortunate  for  the  present  gen- 
eration that  such  shadows  of  suggestion 
do  not  hopelessly  oppress  it.  There 
are  many  churches  now  where  appre- 
ciation, and  love,  and  purity,  and  the 
delights  of  unselfishness  are  offered  as 
the  attractions  towards  religion,  and 
where  the  teachers  in  them  stand  for 
examples  of  pure  thinking,  pure  living, 
and  spontaneous  altruism,  practiced  as 
a result  of  natural  impulses  that  are 
both  agreeable  and  profitable,  and  not 
to  save  from  hell  or  to  fit  for  a remote 
heaven.  But  the  shadow  of  the  old 
method,  that  so  long  hid  the  Christ- 
method  of  true  thinking  and  living, 
still  has  an  influence  in  giving  strength 


148 


HAPPINESS. 


to  evil  to  afflict  the  weaker  sons  of  our 
civilization.  This  shadow,  however, 
cannot  long  remain.  The  light  of  the 
present  awakening  is  too  strong  — too 
electric  and  too  penetrating  — to  per- 
mit it  to  remain. 

It  is  even  looked  upon  now  as  a 
curiosity — a relic  of  antiquity — to  hear 
the  old  fears  given  expression  from  the 
pulpit,  but  root  eradication  of  them  is 
not  yet  insisted  upon  as  the  first  and 
most  important  teaching,  as  it  should 
be.  It  is  a common  thing  now,  also,  to 
hear  altruistic  teaching  and  optimistic 
preaching  from  the  pulpits  of  all  de- 
nominations, and  to  hear  from  the 
teachers  and  preachers  the  assurance 
that  “ it  is  easier  than  not  and  more 
profitable  in  every  way  to  be  unselfish 
and  not  to  tolerate  evil,”  the  new  good 
suggestion  of  which,  is  the  inspiring 
assertion  that,  “it  is  easier  than  not.” 

It  would  be  a rare  thing  now  to  find 
a religious  teacher  of  intelligence  who 
would  not  agree  with  the  assertion.that, 


STOP  IMPORTING. 


149 


when  a person  is  angry,  he  cannot  be, 
at  the  moment,  a Christian,  for  being 
angry  is  as  unchristian  as  profanity. 
The  same  condemnation  applies  to 
worry,  which  is  especially  commanded 
against,  and  which,  in  the  light  of  the 
observed  promises  of  God  as  expressed 
by  the  preponderance  of  the  prevalence 
of  good,  is  not  less  than  blasphemous 
in  its  exhibition  of  lack  of  confidence 
in,  and  appreciation  of,  the  Giver  of 
All  Good. 

A most  helpful  thought  in  connec- 
tion with  the  easy  subjugation  of  the 
animalesque  expressions  of  fearthought 
is,  that  they  are  not  inherent  things,  and 
that  they  are  imported  whenever  suf- 
fered. The  tendency  to  import  is  inhe- 
rent, and  the' tendency  to  entertain  evil 
is  the  shadow  of  past  error  in  the  race 
which  is  called  race-habit-of-thought, 
and  it  is  that  which  has  to  be  replaced 
by  right-habit-of-thought  before  one  is 
entirely  free,  but  tendency  is  easily 
overcome  when  its  parents  are  dis- 


HAPPINESS. 


150 

credited  and  made  not-respectable 
thereby. 

The  spiritual  awakening  of  the  pres- 
ent era  that  is  reclaiming  Christianity 
from  the  supernatural,  or  unnatural;  and 
applying  it  to  everyday  affairs,  may  be 
called  practical  or  business  Christianity. 
A business  man  who  has  an  occupation 
wherein  it  is  possible  for  him  to  be 
altruistic,  after  reading  the  theory  that 
is  the  contention  of  Menticulture , wrote 
a commentary  in  which  he  said:  “ On 
these  precepts  not  only  ‘ hang  all  of  the 
law  and  the  prophets,’  but,  also,  com- 
mon business  sense  and  all  of  the 
profits .” 

As  an  illustration  of  the  difference 
between  eradication  (or  filtration)  and 
repression  (or  gradual  dilution  or  re- 
form) I will  cite  a common  example: 
Suppose  a vessel  to  be  filled  with 
muddy  water  which  we  wish  to  make 
clear,  so  that  it  will  perfectly  reflect  the 
ether  above,  which  we  call  the  sky;  the 
easy  and  effective  method  is  first  to 


STOP  IMPORTING. 


151 

pass  the  water  through  a filter  and 
thereafter  to  protect  it  from  contami- 
nation. On  the  contrary,  the  difficult, 
expensive,  endless  and,  therefore  inef- 
fective method  is  to  pour  unlimited 
clear  water  into  the  vessel,  in  order  to 
gradually  replace  the  muddy  water  with 
the  excess  of  pure  water. 

While  it  is  true  that  “perfect  love 
casteth  out  fear,”  it  also  is  true  that 
there  can  be  no  perfect  love  until 
there  is  first  perfect  freedom  from  fear, 
so  that  the  right  way  to  approach 
the  problem  of  creating  the  harmo- 
nious condition  in  the  human  mind 
wherein  growth  ripens  in  happiness,  is 
to  take  the  mind  when  it  is  returned  to 
us  at  the  moment  of  awaking  from 
sleep,  when  it  has  been  purified  by  con- 
tact with  Spiritual  Cerebration,  and 
protect  it  from  that  time  forth  through 
each  day,  by  refusing  to  import  suspi- 
cion, anger  or  worry  into  it,  a process 
that  is  easier  than  not,  and  pleasanter 
and  more  profitable  than  any. 


152 


HAPPINESS. 


Each  day,  the  tendency  to  import, 
which  is  the  only  part  of  the  process  of 
eradication  that  is  in  any  way  real,  will 
become  less  strong,  and,  with  even  the 
weakest  attempts  to  discourage  it;  but 
if  you  are  sufficiently  in  earnest  to  say, 
“ Begone,  you  tempter,”  and  thereby 
slam  the  door  in  his  face,  you  will 
accomplish  freedom  at  once. 

The  self-infliction  of  fearthought  is  a 
shoveling-in  process — all  that  you  have 
to  do  to  become  free  from  it  is  to  stop 
shoveling.  It  is  easier  to  stop  import- 
ing fearthought,  and  anger,  and  worry, 
and  suspicion,  than  it  is  to  import  them; 
therefore, 

Stop  importing! 


THE  IMPOTENCE  OF  PAIN. 


During  the  Japanese-Chinese  war, 
two  Japanese  students  were  arrested 
in  Shanghai  on  the  charge  of  espionage, 
and  were  taken  to  Ningpo  and  tor- 
tured to  death. 

The  method  of  torture  was  the  most 
cruel  known,  and  included  a slow  crush- 
ing of  the  most  sensitive  parts  of  their 
anatomy. 

The  young  patriots  displayed  such 
heroism  under  the  torture  that  the  in- 
cident gave  rise  to  considerable  discus- 
sion as  to  the  relative  sensitiveness  of 
the  Mongolian  and  the  Caucasian  races 
to  pain.  The  consensus  of  the  opinion 
that  I saw  expressed,  which  was,  by 
the  way,  Caucasian  opinion  only,  was 
that  the  Oriental  was  less  sensitive, 
and  therefore  was  not  entitled  to  as 
much  credit  for  withstanding  pain 
iS3 


154 


HAPPINESS. 


as  the  self-adjudged,  more-sensitive 
Westerner. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  that  there 
is  a limit  to  actual  pain  within  the 
power  of  any  one  to  endure,  if  the  ele- 
ment of  fearthought-of-more-pain  is 
eliminated,  so  that  the  absorbing  hero- 
ism of  the  patriot  — almost  courting 
torture  for  the  honor  of  his  cause  — 
puts  the  element  of  fearthought  out 
of  the  case,  and  leaves  only  the  actual 
sensation  to  be  suffered.  Pain  is  un- 
doubtedly intended  as  a warning  of 
disordered  conditions,  and  not  as  a 
punishment,  and,  having  performed  its 
mission,  is  relieved  by  a kind  paralysis 
before  the  shock  is  too  severe  for  hu- 
man endurance. 

This  is  the  beneficent  provision  of 
the  natural  law,  but  when  it  comes  to 
the  exercise  of  unnatural  fearthought, 
there  is  no  limit  to  the  torture  a victim 
may  impose  upon  himself,  and,  on  a 
basis  of  a very  little  real  pain,  build  up 
most  terrible  suffering. 


THE  IMPOTENCE  OF  PAIN.  155 

The  author  has  tested  the  truth  of 
this  assertion  personally. 

Being  condemned  to  submit  to  a 
dental  operation  of  unusual  severity, 
the  opportunity  to  experiment  was 
gladly  availed  of,  even  at  the  expense 
of  comfort. 

One  special  aggravation  of  the  oper- 
ation was  the  prying  open  of  the  mouth, 
in  order  to  build  up  from  the  root  one 
of  the  teeth  located  farthest  back  in 
the  mouth.  The  mouth  was  not  large 
enough  to  suit  the  facile  convenience 
of  the  dentist,  and  hence  he  made  use 
of  all  the  skill  and  power  he  possessed 
to  enlarge  the  cavity,  and  having 
stretched  it  to  the  utmost,  firm  wedges 
held  it  open,  without  possibility  of  pro- 
test, for  three  hours  on  a stretch;  and 
on  these  instruments  and  conditions  of 
torture  I had  ample  opportunity  to  ex- 
periment; so  sufficient  — for  all  practi- 
cal purposes  — that  I do  not  feel  it 
necessary  to  repeat  the  experiment, 


HAPPINESS. 


156 

even  in  the  interest  of  scientific  inves- 
tigation. 

The  experiment  proved,  however, 
my  contention,  that  even  the  greatest 
possible  pain  is  of  itself  not  very  se- 
vere, and  that  it  requires  but  a slight 
diversion  to  make  one  forget  it,  for 
the  time  being,  entirely.  I was  able, 
at  any  moment  of  the  combined  irri- 
tation, to  concentrate  my  mind  upon 
some  subject  or  object,  and  to  lose  the 
sense  of  pain  out  of  my  consciousness 
altogether — and  at  will. 

Major  General  O.  O.  Howard, 
U.  S.  A.  (retired)  has  recently  cor- 
roborated, to  the  author,  out  of  his  own 
experience,  the  possibility  of  forgetting 
pain  through  slight  diversion.  He  lost 
an  arm  during  the  Civil  War,  and  in  the 
process  of  recovery  some  of  the  nerve- 
ends  were  not  properly  cicatrized,  so 
that  ever  since  the  wound  healed  the 
General  has  not  been  free  from  the  sen- 
sation of  pain,  whenever  his  mind  has 


THE  IMPOTENCE  OF  PAIN.  1 57 

reverted  to  it,  and  yet  he  is  able  at  any 
time  to  forget  it  by  change  of  thought. 

In  like  manner,  fear-of-trouble  is  the 
major  part  of  all  the  so-called  trouble 
that  is  experienced.  As  intimated  in 
the  “definitions,”  under  the  caption  of 
“Trouble,”  there  are  few  real  condi- 
tions that  are  very  uncomfortable,  if 
apprehension  of  still  more  uncomforta- 
ble conditions  is  not  imported  to  ex- 
aggerate the  existing  discomfort.  Fear 
of  freezing  to  death  or  of  drowning 
may  be  made  very  terrible,  for  instance, 
whereas  the  end  in  freezing  and  in 
drowning  is  known  to  be  so  comforta- 
ble, and  even  blissful,  that  those  who 
are  on  the  point  of  passing  out  of  life 
by  those  means  dislike  to  be  called  back 
to  life  again. 

The  heroism  of  mothers  in  the  event 
of  child-birth  is  too  well  known  to  call 
for  reference,  but  there  is  the  greatest 
difference  in  the  ease  or  in  the  discom- 
fort of  the  condition  attending  the  pro- 
cess, which  is  largely  influenced  by  the 


158 


HAPPINESS. 


feeling  of  welcome  or  the  attitude  of 
aversion  with  which  the  new-comer  is 
greeted  by  the  mother. 

The  point-of-view  has  much  to  do 
with  the  sting  of  pain.  Whoever  has 
suffered  that  severest  of  all  spankings, 
the  water  spanking  incident  to  a clumsy 
dive,  or  a wrongly-calculated  somer- 
sault into  the  water  from  a wharf,  or 
from  a natatorium  springboard,  will  re- 
member that  the  pain  of  it  is  not  half 
so  hard  to  bear  as  the  form  of  parental 
correction  called  by  the  same  name, 
that  in  itself  is  not  nearly  so  severe. 

Sensitiveness  to  pain  is  largely  due 
to  the  fear  of  pain,  and  a reversal  of  the 
accustomed  attitude  towards  fear  will 
have  an  immediate  effect  upon  the 
severity  of  pain  by  mitigating  much  of 
its  sting.  Christian  scientists,  mental 
scientists,  spiritual  scientists,  faith  cur- 
ists,  and  all  others  who  practice  men- 
tal therapeutics  in  physical  diseases, 
escape  much  suffering  in  this  way, 
and  the  happy  result  of  this  attitude 


THE  IMPOTENCE  OF  PAIN.  1 59 

towards  pain  serves  to  strengthen  their 
faith. 

Whatever  the  cause  of  the  relief,  it 
is  good,  for  it  teaches,  in  a most  prac- 
tical way,  the  potency  of  thought  in 
overcoming,  or,  dismissing,  real  pain  as 
well  as  all  imaginary  evil,  and  also  the 
possibility  of  eliminating  fearthought 
from  the  piental  equipment,  by  show- 
ing how  impotent  to  harm  are  the 
realities  that  inspire  it,  when  it  is  pre- 
vented from  exaggerating  them. 


UNHAPPY  UNLESS  MISERABLE. 


There  are  some  persons,  in  fact,  a 
great  many  persons,  who  are  not  happy 
unless  they  have  real  or  fancied  cause 
for  complaint.  Martyrdom  is  the 
recreation  of  such  people  and  they  are 
liable  to  be  more  greedy  for  recreation 
than  those  whose  recreation  is  of  a 
joyous  sort. 

It  is  certainly  a misplaced  kindness 
to  impose  unwelcome  attentions  on  any 
one.  In  the  category  of  nuisances 
unwelcome  attentions  are  perhaps  the 
most  disagreeable,  and  to  cram  joy 
down  the  maw  of  one  who  has  no  taste 
for  it,  is  as  rude,  and  even  vulgar,  as  in- 
sisting that  he  shall  eat  something  that 
is  nauseating  to  him. 

It  is  true  that  persons  who  gloat  over 
misery ; who  love  to  mope  about  in 
grave-yards ; and  are  forever  telling 

160 


HAPPILY  MISERABLE.  161 

grewsome  tales  for  the  supposed  delec- 
tation of  their  victims,  are  not  as 
agreeable  to  others  as  they  seem  to 
be  to  themselves,  and  their  presence  at 
festivals  and  other  ostensibly  joyous  oc- 
casions may  be  looked  on  as  discord- 
ant, and,  as  such,  out  of  place. 

In  these  times  of  license,  which  are 
sometime  mistaken  for  times  of  unusual 
liberty,  it  is  not  for  anyone  to  define 
what  is  altogether  bad,  nor  to  confine 
good,  nor  good  taste,  within  too  nar- 
row limits ; neither  is  it  generous  to 
prescribe  anything  that  shall  be  uni- 
versally eaten  or  worn ; and,  above  all 
liberties,  the  liberty  to  wear  a smile  or 
a frown  should  prevail ; but  it  is  within 
the  province  of  organized  society  to 
put  its  stamp  of  approval  or  disap- 
proval on  the  time  and  place  for  ap- 
propriate use  of  them.  Certain  cos- 
tumes are  suitable  in  certain  places  and 
not  suitable  in  others.  For  example, 
the  bathing  suit  and  the  night-robe 
have  uses  that  are  appropriate  for  their 


l62 


HAPPINESS. 


special  purposes,  but  they  would  not  be 
tolerated  on  the  street  by  the  police, 
and  it  would  be  no  greater  curtailment 
of  liberty  to  order  that  frowns  shall  be 
worn  only  in  dark  places  and  not  be 
permitted  to  cloud  the  sunlight,  than 
that  undue  levity  should  be  tabooed  on 
occasions  considered  to  be  serious.  If 
such  prescription  were  to  be  imposed, 
it  would  be  necessary,  of  course,  to 
furnish  dark  places  at  appropriate,  or, 
rather,  convenient  intervals,  for  the  use 
of  the  miserably  inclined,  in  the  same 
way  that  spittoons  are  provided  for  the 
use  of  those  who  must  expectorate 
sputum. 

Liberty  is  so  precious  a thing  that 
it  must  be  protected  as  the  holiest  of 
our  possessions,  and  even  if  it  lap  over 
into  the  debatable  ground  sometimes 
called  license,  it  should  yet  be  pro- 
tected, and  therefore  the  permission  to 
wear  frowns  in  appropriate  places  and 
to  enjoy  being  miserable  in  the  privacy 
of  one’s  own  chamber  should  be  re- 


HAPPILY  MISERABLE.  163 

spected  ; on  the  street,  or  anywhere  in 
public,  however,  they  should  not  be 
tolerated,  for  they  are  harmful  gen- 
erally, and  particularly  injurious  to 
children. 

As  individuals,  those  of  us  who  ac- 
cept God’s  promises  as  truths,  who  pre- 
fer to  live  in  the  sunlight  rather  than 
in  a cave,  who  glorify  Appreciation 
as  the  first  and  best  suggestion  in  the 
language,  who  believe  that  growth  is 
the  object  of  life,  that  its  fallow  field  is 
harmony,  and  that  its  fruit  is  happiness, 
and  also  those  of  us  who,  by  compari- 
son of  conditions  have  learned  to  be- 
lieve that  our  pessimistic  friends  can  be 
happier  than  they  are,  and  can  become 
better  companions  and  citizens  by  a 
change  of  attitude  towards  life,  al- 
though we  may  not  pass  laws  of  re- 
striction against  the  frown-habit  or 
against  the  misery-habit,  can  use 
the  gentle  method  of  counter-sugges- 
tion to  good  effect,  and  even  go  so  far 
as  to  laugh  at  and  otherwise  ridicule 


HAPPINESS. 


164 

the  misery-habit,  if  by  thus  doing  we 
may  possibly  correct  that  which  logic 
has  failed  to  cure. 

From  long  observation  it  has  be- 
come evident  that  the  misery-habit 
feeds  on  sympathy.  Children,  who  are 
the  best  examples  of  honest  expression 
that  we  have,  whereby  to  see  ourselves 
in  an  unartificial  light,  will  not  continue 
a mad  or  a surly  crying  spell  if  they 
are  sure  it  is  not  producing  a sympa- 
thetic effect.  If  they  think  they  are 
not  heard  they  will  at  once  cease  cry- 
ing. In  the  same  way,  grown  persons 
who  practice  the  misery-habit  in  public 
take  a rest  when  they  are  unobserved. 
They  try  to  hide  it,  but  they  are  fre- 
quently caught  in  the  act  of  unbutton- 
ing their  pouts,  and  thereby  allowing 
their  faces  a rest,  as  soon  as  they  have 
thought  themselves  out  of  sight.  We 
must  believe,  if  this  observation  be 
correct,  that  the  object  of  pessimism, 
or,  the  misery-habit,  is  generally  to  se- 
cure, by  dishonest  means,  selfish  atten- 


HAPPILY  MISERABLE.  165 

tions  that  are  not  earned,  and  for 
which  no  value  is  given.  There  are 
cases  no  doubt  where  the  misery-habit 
has  been  acquired  by  contact  with  re- 
spected ones  who  have  been  the  cause 
of  perverse  suggestions  too  strong  to 
be  resisted,  and  for  such  there  can  only 
be  pity,  and  in  the  cure  of  whom  gen- 
tle and  loving  suggestion  should  be 
used,  but  to  the  perverse  and  the 
chronic  practicers  of  the  misery-habit, 
no  toleration  is  good,  for  it  is  on  that, 
and  unmerited  sympathy,  that  they  live 
and  thrive.  On  such,  all  of  the  mis- 
ery possible  to  be  scraped  up  from  the 
discords  of  life  should  be  dumped,  and 
they  should  be  condemned  to  herd  to- 
gether, and  if  it  were  possible,  they 
should  be  isolated,  as  lepers  are  iso- 
lated, from  healthy  society. 

Sometimes  the  victim  of  the  misery- 
habit  practices  the  habit  only  within 
the  family.  This  is  especially  severe 
on  the  family,  and  is  much  more  diffi- 
cult to  treat.  The  family  is  at  once 


HAPPINESS. 


1 66 

the  seat  of  the  greatest  liberty,  and  the 
home  and  breeding-ground  of  the 
greatest  tyranny.  The  family  is  sup- 
posed to  be  under  the  holy  protection 
of  the  divine  principle  of  love,  but  if 
that  principle  is  not  a possession  of  the 
family,  there  is  no  protection  whatever 
from  most  inhuman  practices,  but  in- 
stead a license  to  the  cultivation  of  most 
discordant  passions.  It  is  in  the  family 
that  mollygrubs  are  grown  and  toler- 
ated. It  is  in  the  family  that  one  can- 
not get  rid  of  them  by  running  away, 
for  the  family,  like  the  poor,  you  have 
with  you  always.  And  who  would  have 
it  otherwise?  The  whole  tendency  of 
civilization  is  to  appreciate  the  family 
more  and  more,  and  to  cultivate  respect 
for  the  family  model  as  the  basis  of 
good  government.  But  it  is  the  very 
security  of  the  natural,  and  therefore 
indissoluble,  bonds  that  gives  the  sel- 
fishly inclined  opportunity  to  practice 
the  misery-habit  without  fear  of  being 
thrown  out,  left  behind,  cremated  or 


HAPPILY  MISERABLE.  167 

otherwise  gotten  rid  of,  as  dead  and 
disagreeable  matter  is  usually  treated, 
in  civilized  communities. 

The  symptoms  of  the  misery-habit, 
or  martyr-habit,  are  easy  to  detect,  for 
while  they  may  be  cultivated  and  labo- 
riously practiced  in  private,  they  are 
intended  to  be  seen,  and  are  displayed 
at  times  when  they  are  calculated  to  be 
most  conspicuous.  The  victim  of  the 
martyr-habit  is  usually  an  industrious 
person.  He,  or  possibly  she,  will  per- 
form any  amount  of  necessary,  and 
even  unnecessary,  manual  labor,  in 
order  to  exhibit  martyr-like  fatigue;  is 
always  hanging  behind  in  order  to  be 
slighted;  condemns  attentions  honestly 
intended  as  perfunctory  politeness;  in- 
terprets praise  as  being  patronage;  finds 
any  part  of  a chicken  served  him  at 
the  family  table  the  worst  piece,  and  at 
the  same  time  assures  the  carver  that 
he  has  been  unduly  partial  or  over- 
generous — but,  with  a tone  of  voice  or 
an  expression  of  countenance  that  be- 


i68 


HAPPINESS. 


lies  the  utterance.  A common  phrase 
of  the  afflicted  martyrite  is,  “ Do  n’t 
mind  me,”  and  hysterics  is  the  favorite 
amusement,  while  pain  and  trouble  are 
the  chief  stock  in  trade.  And  is  there 
a remedy?  Yes. 

If  Christianity  were  to  be  measured 
by  the  optimism  of  the  Master,  if  the 
gauge  of  optimism  prescribed  by  the 
Master  were  to  be  used  to  measure 
professing  Christians  for  the  name;  if 
cause  and  effect  were  to  be  placed  in 
their  true  relation  to  each  other,  and 
the  ills  we  cultivate  were  to  be  classed 
as  self-imposed  causes  and  not  effects; 
and  if  the  unnecessary  and  unprofitable 
were  to  be  ranked  as  not-respectable; 
the  misery-habit  or  martyr-habit  would 
cease  to  be  fashionable,  mollygrubs 
would  disappear,  and  the  principal 
breeding -ground  of  pessimism  — the 
family  — would  be  purified,  as  becom- 
ing to  its  holy  office. 


THOU  SHALT  NOT  STRIKE  A 
WOMAN. 


If  a queer  sort  of  human  being, 
dressed  in  a costume  we  had  never 
seen  before,  and  hailing  from  some 
island  we  had  never  heard  of,  were  to 
land  on  our  shores  and  ask  our  protec- 
tion and  the  privilege  of  teaching  the 
religion  of  his  people;  if  he  were  to 
learn  our  language  sufficiently  to  con- 
vey his  ideas  to  us;  if  he  were  to  have 
printed  the  formulas  of  his  religion,  and, 
among  them,  his  deity’s  commandments 
to  men  ; if  the  first  of  these  command- 
ments were  to  read,  “ Thou  shalt  not 
strike  a woman,”  what  would  we 
say  to  such  a commandment?  and  what 
would  we  think  of  a people  who  found 
it  necessary  to  have  such  a formula? 

Our  question  would  naturally  be, 
“ Do  the  people  of  your  country  ever 
strike  women?  ” 


169 


170 


HAPPINESS. 


In  our  particular  state  of  chivalric 
civilization,  striking  women  is  one  of 
the  things  so  entirely  out  of  the  ques- 
tion that  we  do  not  consider  it  even  a 
possibility,  except  in  cases  of  insanity 
or  of  drunkenness,  where  the  brute  of 
the  moment  is  not  responsible  for  his 
action. 

The  very  fact  of  its  being  an  im- 
possible, and  therefore  unmentionable, 
crime  is  the  strongest  suggestion  against 
it. 

If  “Thou  shalt  not  strike  a 
woman”  were  listed  in  the  category 
of  commandments,  and  were  constantly 
repeated  as  something  hard  to  resist, 
and  hence  commanded  against,  I be- 
lieve the  crime  would  become  common 
in  circles  where  it  is  not  thought  of  as 
possible  now. 

The  best  thing  to  do  with  a con- 
demned thing  is  to  cover  it  up,  seal  it 
up,  and  relegate  it  to  the  custody  of 
the  awful,  unwritten  law  of  unanimous 
disapproval. 


THOU  SHALT  NOT. 


171 

It  is  said  that  when  the  Jesuit 
fathers  went  to  Japan  at  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century  they  were  warmly 
welcomed,  and  not  only  were  per- 
mitted but  invited  to  teach  their  re- 
ligion. 

One  of  the  first  things  they  did  was 
to  have  the  ten  commandments  of  the 
old  Mosaic  law  printed  in  Japanese,  in 
the  form  of  what  we  call  a tract,  and 
distributed  among  the  people. 

Reading  was  then,  as  now,  a com- 
mon accomplishment  with  the  Japan- 
ese, and  they  were  interested  in  the 
tract.  They  did  not  quite  understand 
its  purport,  however,  and  one  of  their 
number  was  delegated  to  ask  for  an 
explanation. 

Japan  is  the  land,  above  all  others, 
where  poetry  and  flowers  and  idealism 
and  art  and  other  refinements  are 
cherished  and  appreciated.  Poetry,  in 
Japan,  is  sometimes  so  idealistic  that  it 
is  somewhat  vague  to  any  but  the  poet. 
It  is  the  custom,  therefore,  to  consider 


172 


HAPPINESS. 


that  anything  not  quite  comprehensi- 
ble must  be  poetry;  and  not  under- 
standing the  tract  of  the  fathers,  the 
Japanese  naturally  thought  it  to  be  a 
specimen  of  Portuguese  poetry. 

Approaching  one  of  the  fathers,  the 
spokesman  of  the  people  bowed  with 
accustomed  politeness  and  said:  “ I 
trust  you  will  pardon  the  wretched 
ignorance  and  dullness  of  my  humble 
self,  but  the  great  interest  of  my  com- 
panions, as  well  of  myself,  in  your 
poem,  impels  us  to  ask  you  to  interpret 
to  us  the  great  depth  of  its  beauteous 
crystalline  sweetness,  in  order  that  we 
may  enjoy  it  as  it  is  worthy  of  being 
enjoyed.” 

The  father  was  shocked  to  hear 
his  sacred  commandments  classed  as 
worldly  poetry,  and,  drawing  himself  up 
to  the  full  impressiveness  of  holy  in- 
dignation, replied,  “ That  is  not  poetry; 
that  is  what  our  God  commands  that 
we  must  not  do.” 

“Sayo  de  go  zarimasu,  gomen  na 


THOU  SHALT  NOT. 


173 


sai,”  answered  the  spokesman  in  the 
polite  idiom  of  his  country;  “but  — do 
the  people  of  your  country  ever  do  these 
things?  ” 

Whether  the  Japanese  are,  or  were 
three  hundred  years  ago,  as  exempt 
from  evil  as  the  enquiry  about  the  ten 
commandments  would  imply,  matters 
not.  The  rebuke  was  well  merited  and 
taught  a great,  good  lesson.  We  are 
the  sum  of  our  impressions,  and  the 
suggestions  we  receive  from  experience 
are  the  source  of  our  impressions. 
Some  suggestions  are  so  respected  that 
they  make  deep  impressions,  notably 
the  suggestions  given  us  by  our  parents 
at  our  most  impressionable  age;  but  all 
suggestions  have  some  weight,  and  to 
such  purpose  that  a thing  we  know  to 
be  untrue  becomes  a reality  to  us  by 
constant  repetition,  as  attested  by  the 
common  expression,  “ He  has  told  that 
story  so  many  times  that  he  has  come 
to  believe  it  himself.” 

There  is  scarcely  any  difference  of 


HAPPINESS. 


174 

opinion  about  the  justice  of  the  ten 
commandments;  but  the  constant  repe- 
tition of  “you  must  not  ” is  like  shak- 
ing a red  rag  before  a wild  bull,  to  many 
self-assertive  children;  whereas,  if  the 
things  to  be  commanded  against  were 
understood  to  be  impossible,  and  there- 
fore unmentionable,  the  commandments 
would  come  to  fit  crimes  that  had  be- 
come as  much  out  of  date  to  us  now  as 
is  the  crime  of  striking  women. 

We  have  constant  evidence  of  the 
fact  that  beliefs,  or,  rather,  habits-of- 
belief,  follow  persistent  assertion,  and 
that  character  is  largely  molded  by  ex- 
isting formulas  as  well  as  other  influ- 
ences of  our  environment. 

Without  desire  to  criticise  the  for- 
mulas of  any  creeds,  except  in  the  way 
of  counter-suggestion,  I would  ask, 
“ What  would  be  the  probable  effect  of 
teaching  the  constant  repetition  of  the 
eleventh  commandment  in  place  of 
the  older  ten? — ‘A  new  command- 
ment I give  unto  you,  that  you  love 


THOU  SHALT  NOT. 


175 


one  another.’  ” It  is  impossible  to 
love  and  to  hate  at  the  same  time. 
It  is  impossible  to  obey  the  eleventh 
commandment  and  disobey  any  of  the 
ten  at  the  same  time.  Is  it  not  better 
practice  of  suggestion,  in  order  to  form 
habit-of-thought,  to  repeat  the  eleventh 
commandment  eleven  times,  than  to  re- 
peat each  of  the  ten  once  and  the 
eleventh  only  once? 

It  is  true  that  the  easy  way  to  attain 
good  is  to  cease  to  have  evil , but,  it  is  a 
poor  way  to  cease  to  have  evil  to  nurse 
it  in  the  memory  as  a thing  diffiailt  not 
to  have. 

If  there  is  to  be  repetition  of  any- 
thing, it  is  better  that  it  should  be  of 
such  suggestions  as  “Appreciation  ’’ 
and  “Love.” 

The  mind  is  as  amenable  to  the 
force  of  habit  as  are  any  of  the  physical 
members  of  the  body.  The  soul  is 
much  more  amenable  to  suggestion 
than  either,  for  it  is  much  more  im- 
pressionable. If  you  were  teaching  a 


176 


HAPPINESS. 


child  to  play  the  piano,  would  you  have 
him  run  all  the  scales,  or,  rather,  com- 
binations of  notes  that  do  not  form 
scales,  that  are  to  be  avoided  in  music, 
in  order  to  teach  him  the  habit  of  not 
playing  them?  Would  it  be  good  teach- 
ing to  have  him  habituate  his  fingers  to 
the  sequence  of  false  scales  as  well  as  to 
the  sequence  of  true  scales?  May  not 
the  constant  repetition  of  the  com- 
mandments that  refer  to  lewd  prac- 
tices suggest  thoughts  about  lewdness 
that  never  would  come  to  young  minds 
by  other  means,  and  therefore  taint 
pure  thought,  in  brutal  fashion,  by  vile 
suggestion  ? 


THE  POINT-OF-VIEW. 


Suppose  two  men  of  equal  physical 
strength  were  to  start  in  a thousand- 
mile  bicycle  race.  Suppose  one  of  the 
men  were  to  greet  the  passing  of  each 
mile-post  in  this  wise:  "Only  nine 

hundred  and  ninety-nine  miles  more; 
only  nine  hundred  and  ninety  miles 
more,”  or  whatever  the  distance  cov- 
ered might  be  at  the  time.  Suppose 
the  other  were  to  greet  the  same  mile- 
posts otherwise,  as  "only  one  mile;” 
or,  " hang  it,  only  ten  miles.”  Which 
racer  would  win? 

In  effect,  one  of  the  men  would  be 
going  down  hill  and  the  other  would 
be  going  up  hill,  and  just  that  differ- 
ence of  approach  would  win  the  race 
for  the  person  who  was  rolling  down 
from  one  thousand  miles  to  one  mile, 
from  the  person  who  was  struggling 
177 


i78 


HAPPINESS. 


along  the  upward  course  from  one 
mile  to  a thousand  miles. 

Suppose  two  men  were  to  each  feel 
a pain  in  the  joint  of  his  big  toe.  Sup- 
pose one  of  the  attacked  ones  were  to 
greet  the  pain  as  follows:  “Well!  I 
suppose  that  means  the  gout,  and  I am 
to  be  afflicted  for  the  balance  of  my 
life  with  that  horrible  disease.  What 
have  I done  to  deserve  such  a fate? 
I suppose  some  of  my  ancestors  are  re- 
sponsible for  this,  but  I will  have  to 
suffer  for  it  all  the  same.”  Suppose 
the  other  victim  were  to  greet  the  same 
m symptom  in  himself  differently,  as  fol- 
lows: “ Hello,  old  fellow,  what  does  all 
this  mean? — too  much  rich  food,  too 
much  rich  wine,  too  much  of  every- 
thing that  is  good  to  the  taste  and  bad 
for  the  stomach.  Well,  I might  have 
expected  it.  Am  ever  so  much  obliged 
to  you,  Mr.  Pain,  for  having  warned 
me  so  promptly;  I ’ll  take  the  hint  and 
correct  the  error  before  the  trouble  gets 
seated.  Keep  me  well  posted,  Mr. 


THE  POINT-OF-VIEW. 


179 


Pain.  If  the  disorder  does  not  disap- 
pear, please  keep  on  prodding  me  so 
that  I will  know  if  I am  doing  the  right 
thing  or  the  wrong  thing  towards  it.” 
Which  of  these  men  would  recover 
more  quickly,  and  which  of  them  would 
suffer  more  discomfort? 

There  are  always  different  points-of- 
view  and  different  attitudes  towards 
every  problem  of  life.  The  different 
points-of-view  are  always  in  competi- 
tion, and,  other  conditions  being  equal, 
winning  or  losing  is  a question  of  at- 
titude. The  attitude  that  is  directed 
by  appreciation,  gratitude,  hope,  trust, 
or  any  of  the  attributes  of  Forethought, 
will  always  wrin,  as  against  the  attitude 
that  is  handicapped  by  any  shade  of 
Fearthought. 

Life  may  be  filled  with  disappoint- 
ments or  with  successes  merely  by  the 
choice  of  point-of-view,  the  pessimistic 
point-of-view  leading  from  disappoint- 
ment to  disappointment,  and  the  opti- 
mistic point  of  view  leading  to  a sue- 


i8o 


HAPPINESS. 


cession  of  successes.  As  a man  thinks, 
so  does  he  act,  and  so  does  the  world 
help  him  to  act. 

Evolution  never  places  obstacles  in 
the  right  road.  A seeming  obstacle 
may  be  but  a hurdle,  the  clearing  of 
which  may  win  a prize  in  the  life  race. 
Some  one  has  said  that  the  supreme 
obstacle  in  life  is  surmounted  by  aid  of 
the  progressively  difficult  smaller  ob- 
stacles that  are  overcome  with  increas- 
ing ease,  and  which,  if  their  beneficent 
uses  are  known,  become  only  hurdles 
instead  of  obstructions. 

“Set  ’em  up  again;  they  are  all 
down  but  nine,”  said,  in  the  spirit  of 
hopeful  determination,  has  won  games 
for  many  contestants. 

It  is  the  point-of-view  that  deter- 
mines whether  an  obstacle  is  a hurdle 
or  an  obstruction,  or  whether  the  ob- 
struction, if  it  be  such,  is  in  the  wrong 
road  or  not.  If  a traveler  on  life’s 
road  starts  with  an  optimistic  point-of- 
view  he  will  enjoy  obstacles  as  hurdles, 


THE  POINT-OF-VIEW.  181 

or  he  will  greet  obstructions  with 
pleasure,  as  being  Providentially  placed 
in  the  wrong  road.  In  any  case  he 
will  be  happy  about  it,  and  his  happi- 
ness will  be  the  best  possible  stimulant 
in  aiding  him  to  clear  hurdles  or  to 
seek  new  paths  to  pleasant  places. 

The  optimistic  and  pessimistic  points- 
of-view  are  the  means  by  which  the 
concordant  and  discordant  notes  in  life 
are  sounded.  The  merit  or  demerit  of 
things  lies  less  within  the  things  them- 
selves, as  far  as  the  observer  is  con- 
cerned, than  in  his  ability  to  accept 
them  complacently,  if  inevitable,  and 
to  mould  or  to  shape  them  to  profitable 
and  agreeable  uses,  rather  than  to  suf- 
fer them  as  unprofitable  and  disagree- 
able. For  example,  it  is  profitable  to 
look  upon  all  persons  and  upon  all  ex- 
periences as  teachers,  but  to  reserve 
the  superiority  of  choosing  to  be  guided 
by  them  or  warned  by  them  according 
as  the  quality  of  the  teaching  is  good 
or  bad. 


182 


HAPPINESS. 


There  are  proverbs  in  all  languages 
that  teach  the  preference  of  the  opti- 
mistic point-of-view,  but  they  will  avail 
little  as  long  as  fearthought  is  tolerated 
as  a necessary  and  respectable  thing. 
Experience  endorses  the  proverbs  and 
discredits  the  necessity  and  respecta- 
bility of  fearthought. 

The  Japanese  have  a proverb,  born 
of  the  optimistic  point-of-view,  that  is 
very  useful  to  them,  inasmuch  as  the 
light  wood-construction  of  their  houses 
invites  frequent  fires  and  sweeping 
losses  in  consequence.  After  a fire  it 
is  fashionable  in  Japan  for  sufferers  to 
greet  each  other  in  sympathy  with 
the  truism,  always  accompanied  by  a 
smile,  “Not  much  trouble  to  move,” 
and  then  they  all  pitch  in  to  assist  as 
much  as  possible  to  rehabilitate  each 
other  through  kind  attentions  that 
really  make  the  fires  but  hot-bed  nur- 
series of  altruistic  sympathy,  in  which 
there  is  more  joy  than  in  the  greatest 
accumulation  of  possessions. 


THE  POINT-OF-VIEW.  183 

After  the  war  — the  recent  sectional 
dispute,  whose  theater  of  destruction  was 
in  the  Southern  States  of  America  — 
many  of  the  families  of  the  ante-bellum 
slave  aristocracy  were  mainly  reduced 
in  possessions,  and  deprived  of  some  of 
the  means  of  ostentation,  and  in  rare 
instances,  of  the  necessary  means  of 
comfort;  but  they  had  been  defeated 
in  their  Cause,  and  many  of  them  set- 
tled into  a state  of  depression  that  was 
more  cruel  to  them  than  all  the  reverses 
of  the  war.  Nature  continued  to  be  as 
kind,  the  seasons  smiled  on  the  crops 
with  unvarying  regularity,  and  the  phys- 
ical scars  of  war  were  soon  healed  and 
overgrown,  but  the  disappointed  ones 
heeded  not  the  return  of  material  pros- 
perity. They  focused  their  point-of- 
view  upon  the  past,  and  refused  to  see 
the  smiles  and  the  warmth  of  the  pres- 
ent and  the  promise  of  the  future. 

Property  aristocracy  always  creates 
a false  pride,  in  which  the  point-of-view 
is  distorted. 


HAPPINESS. 


184 

It  will  undoubtedly  be  the  same  with 
the  name-proud  Greeks  as  it  was  with 
the  property-proud  Southrons,  and  be- 
speaks little  for  the  respectability  of  a 
pride  that  afflicts  its  victims  more  se- 
riously than  the  destruction  of  property. 

It  is  a meritorious  pride  that  rises 
superior  to  defeat,  and  after  saying 
“Thy  Will  Be  Done”  adds,  “Teach 
Thou  Me  Appreciation,”  and  begins 
the  pursuit  of  peace  anew  with  the 
point  of  view  directed  by  optimism  and 
not  by  pessimism. 

I have  seen  whole  families,  suffering 
from  self-imposed  humiliation  and  de- 
pression, leap  into  new  life,  new  growth, 
and  new  happiness  at  a change  of  the 
point-of-view.  The  Southerners  are, 
above  all  other  Americans,  chivalrous 
and  loyally  American  in  their  natures. 
They  are  also  generally  religious,  and 
cling  to  the  teachings  of  their  parents. 
In  focusing  their  point-of-view  upon 
the  past,  and,  nursing  the  sting  of  de- 
feat, they  have  thought  that  they  were 


THE  POINT-OF-VIEW.  185 

conserving  filial  regard,  chivalry  and 
religion,  and  they  have  held  to  the  dis- 
torted point -of -view  with  loyal  pur- 
pose. A change  of  the  point-of-view, 
rising  superior  to  disappointment,  more 
nearly  satisfied  filial  pride,  while  Chris- 
tian optimism  and  gratitude  more  nearly 
became  the  profession  of  religion  than 
the  fault-finding  dictated  by  the  anti- 
quated point-of-view.  Finding  fault 
with  the  happenings  of  the  past  is  as 
much  blasphemy  as  any  other  disap- 
proval of  the  Almighty,  and  yet  blas- 
phemy is  regarded  as  the  wickedest 
of  sins  in  religious  estimation;  and,  at 
the  same  time,  loading  up  with  a bur- 
den of  depression  and  self-humiliation 
is  the  most  unprofitable  form  of  self- 
abuse known  to  economics. 

It  is  better  to  have  an  intelligent 
and  optimistic  command  of  the  point-of- 
view  and  hold  title  to  nothing,  than  to 
have  possessions  valued  at  millions, 
and  not  count  this  as  the  richest  pos- 
session of  them  all.  If  anything  seem 


HAPPINESS. 


1 86 

to  be  wrong  with  you,  first  examine 
the  point-of-view.  If  you  do  this  con- 
scientiously, you  will  probably  find  the 
fault  therein  and  seek  a remedy  by 
changing  the  point-of-view. 


DON’T  BE  A SEWER. 


A sewer  is  a channel  for  the  con- 
veyance of  disagreeable  matter. 

Any  person  who  receives  and  carries 
mean  report  or  suspicion  of  his  neigh- 
bor is  therefore  a human  sewer. 

A good  sewer  is  a good  thing.  It 
receives  disagreeable  matter  and  carries 
it  along,  hidden  from  sight  and  away 
from  the  other  senses,  to  some  remote 
place,  and  discharges  it  there. 

A leaky  sewer  is  an  abomination. 

Human  sewers  usually  leak.  They 
take  delight  in  letting  out  the  disagree- 
able matter  they  are  carrying,  at  every 
street  corner,  in  every  parlor,  and  in 
the  midst  of  the  multitude,  wherever 
they  may  chance  to  be.  The  charac- 
teristic of  the  human  sewer  is  that  it 
is  a leaky  sewer.  By  its  leaks  it  is 
known. 


187 


1 88 


HAPPINESS. 


Human  sewers  themselves  generally 
create  much  of  their  sewage. 

I once  had  a friend,  an  otherwise 
good  fellow,  who  had  acquired  the 
habit  of  collecting  and  distributing 
social  sewage.  He  was  not  amenable 
to  logical  suggestion  against  the  habit. 
He  held  the  idea  that  a spade  should 
be  called  a spade,  and  that  if  disagree- 
able things  existed,  honesty  required 
that  they  should  be  discussed.  One 
day,  when  my  friend  was  carrying  an 
unusually  heavy  load  of  sewage,  and 
was  distributing  it  freely,  this  thought 
came  into  my  mind,  and  I gave  it  utter- 
ance. “ You  remind  me  of  a sewer,” 
said  I. 

There  might  have  been  a serious 
impairment  of  our  friendship  as  the  re- 
sult of  my  utterance,  for  my  friend  is 
full  of  so-called  “spirit,”  had  I not 
immediately  followed  my  offensive 
remark  by  an  apology,  and  a brotherly 
explanation  somewhat  in  the  vein  as 
above. 


DON’T  BE  A SEWER.  189 

The  good  effect  of  the  comparison 
on  my  friend  is  my  excuse  for  intro- 
ducing it  here.  What  logic  and 
persuasion  had  not  been  able  to  ac- 
complish, offensive  comparison  accom- 
plished. 

My  friend  is  too  self-respecting  to 
allow  himself  to  be  in  any  way  related 
to  a leaky  sewer,  and  has  reformed 
beautifully.  A short  time  since,  in 
speaking  of  the  incident,  he  acknowl- 
edged its  effectiveness  by  saying, 
“Every  time  I think  of  anything  mean 
I fancy  I can  smell  it.” 


CALL  SUSPICION  A LIAR. 


It  is  an  excellent  rule  to  follow  to 
call  Suspicion  a liar  five  times  before 
basing  judgment  upon  its  testimony. 

If  you  will  take  the  trouble  to  in- 
vestigate the  average  accuracy  of  your 
suspicions,  you  will  note  that  they  are 
wrong  in  so  many  cases  that  they  are 
not  a safe  guide,  and  are  generally  un- 
just accusers. 

While  the  person  who  harbors  the 
suspicion  is  the  worst  sufferer  in  the 
end,  when  the  accusations  have  been 
proved  to  be  groundless,  there  is  al- 
ways a possibility  of  injustice,  that, 
falling  on  servants  or  others  holding 
inferior  positions,  is  exceedingly  cruel. 

How  often,  in  the  household  or  in 
the  hotel  apartment,  is  a carelessly 
mislaid  ring  the  cause  of  great  unhap- 
piness to  both  mistress  and  maid,  be- 


190 


CALL  SUSPICION  A LIAR.  191 

cause  of  the  ready  mischief  of  Fear- 
thought  and  its  attendant  imp,  Suspi- 
cion. 

It  is  an  axiom  of  the  detective  ser- 
vice, that  untrained  suspicion  generally 
takes  the  wrong  scent,  and  that  it  usu- 
ally saves  time  to  look  in  some  other 
direction  for  the  culprit,  than  in  that 
pointed  out  by  the  accuser. 

The  elimination  of  the  seeds  of 
Fearthought  from  the  mind,  the  possi- 
bility of  which  is  the  contention  of  my 
theory,  will  carry  with  it  suspicion,  and 
relieve  one  of  endless  chance  of  doing 
and  suffering  injustice,  but  if  emanci- 
pation should,  unfortunately,  not  have 
been  accomplished,  it  is  an  excellent 
rule  to  follow,  to  meet  Suspicion  with 
suspicion,  and  call  it  “liar”!  five  times, 
before  making  accusation  on  its  testi- 
mony. 


I CAN’T  NOT  DO  IT. 


A person  more  frequently  lies  when 
he  says  “ I can’t  ” than  when  he  says  “ I 
can.”  There  are,  to  be  sure,  more 
things  that  one  cannot  do  than  there 
are  that  he  can  do,  because  the  ability 
of  the  strongest  and  most  skillful  is 
comparatively  limited  ; but  the  person 
who  is  in  the  habit  of  saying  “ I can’t” 
usually  says  it  about  the  wrong  thing 
or  at  the  wrong  time. 

Whenever  a person  says  that  he 
cannot  do  a thing  that  God  has  made 
it  possible  for  him  to  do,  and  which  he 
knows  to  be  possible,  he  is  not  only  a 
liar,  but  also  a blasphemer. 

If  one  is  asked  to  climb  a tree  or 
lift  a very  heavy  weight,  there  may  be 
reason  for  saying  “ I can’t,”  because 
of  lack  of  ability,  strength  or  practice. 
For  the  same  reason,  difficult  “runs” 


192 


I CAN’T  NOT  DO  IT.  193 

on  a piano,  perilous  feats  of  balancing 
or  turning  in  gymnastics,  and  even  a 
great  many  simple  things  that  are  easy 
to  the  accustomed,  may  be  impossible 
to  the  unaccustomed  without  certain 
practice,  and  with  reference  to  them  it 
is  reasonable  to  say,  “ I can’t.” 

If,  however,  one  is  asked  not  to 
climb  a tree,  or  not  to  lift  a weight,  or 
not  to  perform  a “run”  on  a piano, 
there  is  no  excuse  for  saying,  “I  cannot 
not  do  it,”  for  it  is  as  illogical  as  it  is 
ungrammatical,  and  as  false  as  any 
other  lie. 

Applied  to  mental  accomplishment, 
it  is  even  more  illogical  and  false,  be- 
cause thought  is  more  pliable  than 
muscle. 

Not  being  evil  is  simply  not  being; 
evil , and  whoever  says,  “ I cannot  not 
be  bad,”  is  a liar.  When  he  is  asleep 
he  proves  the  lie. 

There  are  habits-of-desire  which 
seem  attractive  to  perverted  taste,  that 
may  need  a strong  counter-suggestion 


194 


HAPPINESS. 


to  correct,  but  there  is  no  habit-of- 
desire  but  what  can  easily  be  corrected 
by  the  right  counter-suggestion.  For 
instance,  drinking  whisky  habitually 
is  recognized  to  be  a bad  habit  of  per- 
verted desire,  but  one  habitual  drunk- 
ard I know  of  abjured  whisky  for  life 
on  account  of  having  discovered  a dead 
fly  in  his  glass. 

Sometimes  it  requires  a mania  to 
cure  a mania.  Dr.  H.  Holbrook  Curtis, 
the  eminent  throat-specialist  of  New 
York,  who  has  in  his  care,  during  grand 
opera  season,  millions  of  dollars’  worth 
of  voices,  and  who  makes  special  study 
of  the  mental  condition  of  his  patients, 
once  said  to  me,  “ The  only  cure  that  I 
know  of  for  dipsomania  is  religio- 
mania.”  This  same  assertion  is  fre- 
quently made  in  quite  a different  way, 
but  to  the  same  effect.  Dr.  Curtis  did 
not  mean  by  religio-mania  religious 
appreciation;  neither  did  he  mean  by 
dipsomania,  temperate  use  of  stimu- 
lants. He  referred  to  the  intemperate 


I CAN’T  NOT  DO  IT.  195 

emotion  and  the  morbid  taste.  The 
practice  of  drinking  unduly  because  of 
the  social  temptation  of  it  may  be  cured 
by  logical  suggestion,  but  a mania  may 
be  amenable  only  to  a mania.  There 
is,  however,  no  bad  habit  but  that  can 
be  corrected  by  some  means,  and  as 
there  is  some  remedy  for  every  sepa- 
rate phase  of  evil,  it  should  be  consid- 
ered not  respectable  to  say,  “ I cannot 
not  do”;  and,  as  measure  of  respecta- 
bility is  the  highest  social  desideratum 
in  the  present  age,  the  best  weapon 
to  be  used  against  the  toleration  of 
evil  in  one’s  self  or  in  others  is  a general 
protest  against  it  on  the  score  of  its  be- 
ing unnecessary  and  not-respectable. 

In  my  experiments  I have  used  all 
sorts  of  means  of  suggestion  with  which 
to  reach  perverse  habits  of  evil  thought. 
As  stated  elsewhere,  offensive  com- 
parisons and  ridicule  are  more  fre- 
quently effective  than  reason  or  logic, 
and,  as  such,  are  often  necessary,  in  the 
same  way  that  offensive  medicines  are 


ig6 


HAPPINESS. 


sometimes  effective  in  removing  indi- 
gestible matter  from  the  stomach, — 
for  example,  ipecac. 

I had  a friend  who  was  in  the  habit 
of  saying  “ I can’t  ” to  almost  every- 
thing. The  habit-of-opposition  was  so 
strong  that  it  was  the  first  to  assert  it- 
self on  every  occasion.  The  attitude  of 
opposition  was  strengthened  by  the 
perverse  idea  that  brutal  frankness  is 
an  expression  of  honesty,  and  hence 
reference  to  his  honesty  or  dishonesty 
was  a tender  point  of  etiquette  with 
my  friend.  To  touch  this  tender  spot, 
and  administer  the  strong  suggestion 
— medicine  — necessary  in  the  case,  I 
hit  upon  this  expedient: 

Whenever  my  friend  said  “ I can’t  ” 
to  a proposition  which  it  did  not  fit,  I 
immediately  ejaculated,  “Liar!”  At 
first  there  was  some  danger  attending 
my  experiment,  but  I took  the  precau- 
tion to  be  out  of  reach,  and  the  fact 
that  my  intention  was  good  assured 
me  ultimate  pardon. 


I CAN’T  NOT  DO  IT,  197 

At  first  my  offensive  criticism  was 
frequently  necessary,  but  it  became  less 
and  less  so,  till  at  last  the  cure  is  so 
complete  that  the  once  favorite  ex- 
pression, “ I can’t,”  is  as  disagreeable 
to  my  friend,  as  must  have  been  the 
dead  fly  in  the  glass  of  the  drunkard 
previously  mentioned,  that  was  the 
means  of  curing  him  of  a deeply  rooted 
habit. 


A MILLION  TO  ONE  ON  THE  UNEX- 
PECTED. 


One  evening,  at  a meeting  of  the 
“ Ganglionics,”  in  the  city  of  New 
Orleans,  I asked  the  president  of  the 
club,  Dr.  William  Benjamin  Smith, 
the  question,  “Why  is  it  that  the  unex- 
pected generally  happens?”  His  reply, 
which  induced  the  caption  to  this  chap- 
ter, was,  “ Because  the  expected  is  only 
one  thing,  while  the  unexpected  may  be 
a million  things.” 

This  is  really,  as  well  as  figuratively, 
true,  and,  being  true,  what  idiots  are 
we  to  waste  our  time  and  paralyze 
our  energies,  by  thinking  fearthought 
into  the  future,  on  a milllion-to-one 
chance  of  its  hitting  the  mark. 

There  is  one  bull’s-eye  that  we  are 
sure  to  hit  if  we  aim  at  it  constantly  and 
long  enough.  Death  is  the  one  uni- 

198 


A MILLION  TO  ONE.  199 

versal  bull’s-eye  that  figures  in  every 
life.  At  the  same  time  that  we  are 
sure  of  hitting  it,  we  know  by  the  ex- 
perience of  others  that  we  do  not  realize 
death  when  it  actually  comes,  for  Na- 
ture kindly  administers  an  anaesthetic 
just  before  death,  and  sometimes  long 
before.  Then  why  should  we  fear 
even  death? 

Persons  who  have  been  at  the  open 
door  of  the  unexplored  state  called 
death  say  that  a delightful  feeling  of 
rest  comes  over  the  emigrant,  and  that 
entry  into  the  next  state  is  like  being 
in  a beautiful  dream. 

If  this  be  so,  there  is  also  nothing 
disagreeable  in  death  — only  in  the 
fearthought  about  it  — and  hence  the 
one  only  bull’s-eye  we  have  been  sure  of 
hitting  — the  cause  of  fear  of  death  — 
does  not  exist,  except  in  our  hopes  or 
our  fears. 

Many  persons  who  are  in  the  habit 
of  apprehending  cause  for  fearthought 
about  the  future,  and  who  spend  much 


200 


HAPPINESS. 


of  their  time  in  worry,  would  not  like 
to  be  put  down  in  the  category  of  false 
prophets,  and  yet  their  apprehension 
must  be  false  in  the  ratio  of  chances  of 
a million  to  one. 

Thought  about  chance,  as  related  to 
forethought,  and  from  the  point-of-view 
of  the  speculator  or  gambler,  suggests 
the  absurdity  of  wasting  any  good 
coin — calm  and  happiness — by  “laying 
it  on” — betting  on — fear.  The  chances 
against  having  “coppered”  the  right 
fear  are  not  only  not  even , but  are  ten 
to  one  against  — an  hundred  to  one 
against — or  more  — never  less.  Even 
if  you  should  win  by  correctly  guessing 
a fear,  you  would  get  back  again  none 
of  the  happiness  that  you  had  sacri- 
ficed— would  not  even  get  your  “ stake  ” 
back. 

As  a matter  of  actual  experience,  the 
following  incident  is  a good  example: 
A young  man  employed  in  a publishing 
house,  where  the  proprietor  was  af- 
flicted with  the  fuss-and-fret-habit,  con- 


A MILLION  TO  ONE. 


201 


traded  the  disease,  and  unconsciously 
became  a victim  to  its  toils.  Robust 
good  health  began  to  give  way  to  lan- 
guor that  induced  dyspepsia  and  other 
contingent  disorders,  until  suicide  stared 
the  young  man  in  the  face  and  haunted 
his  dreams. 

One  day  some  one  whispered  a sus- 
picion in  the  young  employee’s  ear 
that  was  directed  at  worry  and  anger 
as  the  causes  of  his  ill-health  and  un- 
happiness and  the  thought  led  his  sys- 
tematic habits-of-business  to  suggest 
“keeping  tab”  on  at  least  one  of  the 
suspects,  to  see  if  it  were  the  liar  and 
thief,  as  charged.  Each  day,  when 
worry  made  its  predictions,  record  of 
them  was  carefully  kept,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  month  the  reports  were  checked 
up  by  results.  Only  three  per  cent,  of  the 
predictions  were  even  remotely  realized! 

The  old  proprietor  of  the  business, 
through  whom  the  contagious  poison 
started,  is  dead,  and  the  happy  young 


202 


HAPPINESS. 


menticulturist  owns  the  business,  which 
has  become  very  successful  by  influ- 
ence of  the  sunny  optimism  of  its  new 
owner,  which  attracts  trade  uncon- 
sciously to  it. 


LOVE  CANNOT  BE  QUALIFIED. 

The  merit  of  loving  is  in  the  act, 
and  should  not  — cannot  — be  qualified 
by  the  merit  or  demerit  of  the  object 
under  consideration. 

There  may  be  more  effort  required, 
perhaps,  in  loving  something  that  seems 
to  us  unlovely,  but  no  more  virtue  in  so 
doing,  as  loving,  like  virtue,  is  its  own 
reward. 

God-love  does  not  discriminate.  It 
is,  therefore,  ungodly  to  discriminate. 
In  the  performance  of  the  Man-Nature 
partnership-function  of  “divine  selec- 
tion” in  the  harmonizing  of  things  that 
are  antagonistic  to  each  other  and  to 
Man  — selecting  for  survival  those 
things  that  are  not  deterrent  to  the 
harmonious  growth  and  happiness  of 
Man  — if  selection  is  to  be  made,  it 
should  be  done  in  the  spirit  of  calm 
203 


204 


HAPPINESS. 


justice,  and  not  in  the  spirit  of  hate, 
for,  as  love  blesses  the  lover,  so  does 
hate  react  upon  the  hater. 

We  cannot  afford  not  to  love. 

There  are  animals  and  insects  that 
seem  to  us  to  be  undesirable  and  preju- 
dicial to  the  harmony  we  are  seeking 
to  secure,  that  may  serve  most  excel- 
lent purposes  in  relation  to  existing 
conditions.  They  are  frequently  a 
warning  against  unfavorable  conditions, 
in  the  same  way  that  pain  is  a warning 
against  diseased  conditions  in  the  body. 
In  the  same  way,  crime  is  a warning 
against  social  or  political  conditions 
which  invite  or  compel  crime,  and  rem- 
edy should  be  sought  in  change  of  the 
conditions  in  preference  to  the  punish- 
ment of  the  crime.  I believe  that  a 
change  of  our  point-of-view  — our  atti- 
tude towards  causes  and  effects — would 
find  punishment  generally  unnecessary, 
and,  as  such,  brutal. 

There  is,  then,  a double  reason  why 
we  should  hate  nothing.  In  the  first 


LOVE  QUALIFIED.  205 

place,  it  is  probable  that  we  are  hating 
the  wrong  thing,  and  thereby  are  un- 
just, and  we  are  certainly  doing  injury 
to  ourselves  by  nursing  the  feeling  of 
hatred. 

Disapproval  — calm  disapproval  — 
is  a better  judge  in  the  exercise  of 
“divine  selection”  than  angry  antag- 
onism. Pity,  as  well  as  love,  is  a divine 
attribute,  but  hate  is  an  attribute  of  the 
devil.  Pity  suggests  change  of  condi- 
tions producing  inharmonious  results. 
Hate  suggests  punishment  of  the  vic- 
tim of  the  inharmony. 

In  its  relation  to  personal  comfort, 
the  practice  of  not  permitting  hate,  nor 
annoyance,  nor  irritation,  nor  repulsion 
to  possess  one’s  feelings,  will  bring 
greatest  good  results.  Take  the  mos- 
quito pest,  for  instance:  One  who  be-" 
gins  to  feel  irritation  at  the  sound  made 
by  the  wings  of  the  insect,  is  already 
creating  within  himself  a condition 
favorable  to  inflammation  from  the 
effects  of  the  bite.  Many  who  suffer 


206 


HAPPINESS. 


by  mosquitos  admit  that  the  buzz  is 
worse,  to  them,  than  the  bite,  which  is 
proof  of  a purely  mental  and  unneces- 
sary affliction. 

There  was  a time  in  my  boyhood 
when  mosquitos  poisoned  and  annoyed 
me  beyond  endurance.  Each  bite  rep- 
resented a great  itching  welt,  and  the 
buzzing  was  full  of  terror  in  conse- 
quence, or,  more  likely,  in  the  light  of 
present  knowledge,  the  buzzing  in- 
spired fearthought  or  dread,  and  the 
bite  was  very  poisonous  in  consequence. 
At  present,  mosquito  bites  are  not 
poisonous  to  me,  and  mosquito  sounds 
are  no  longer  disagreeable.  I do  not 
remember  when  the  deliverance  came. 
Possibly  the  cure  came  through  inti- 
mate acquaintance.  I have  lived  in 
localities  where  the  mosquito  thrives 
all  the  year  round,  and  in  such  num- 
bers that  he  tires  his  victims  into  a 
state  of  non-resistance,  and  in  the  calm 
of  non-resistance,  physical  and  mental 
irritations  cease.  This  is  sometimes 


LOVE  QUALIFIED.  207 

called  acclimatization,  but  it  proves  the 
contention,  whichever  way  it  is  inter- 
preted. 

In  the  practice  of  my  freedom  from 
what  was  once  a great  affliction,  I 
sometimes  brave  a swarm  of  mosquitos 
by  sleeping  in  their  presence  without 
drawing  the  bar.  If  the  mosquitos 
light  on  me  freely,  I find  comfort  in  the 
evidence  of  my  popularity,  and  in  the 
fact  that  I am  probably  being  of  service 
to  something,  or  somebody,  by  possibly 
diverting  attentions  that  would  not  be 
appreciated  in  like  manner  by  them. 
In  the  morning,  when  I look  in  the 
glass  and  note  the  little  red  spots  that 
the  bites  have  left,  but  of  which  I am 
not  otherwise  conscious,  I consider 
them  as  a record  of  my  hospitality,  and 
am  proud  of  them,  as  the  German 
corps  student  is  proud  of  the  scars 
on  his  face,  that  are  a record  of  equally 
foolish  bravery  or  exposure,  taken  out 
of  his  university  course  at  Heidelberg 
or  elsewhere.  My  braving  of  the  mos- 


208 


HAPPINESS. 


quitos  would  certainly  be  classed  as  fool- 
ish, except  as  a test  of  superiority,  but 
the  pin-point  red  spots  soon  disappear 
and  do  no  permanent  harm. 

Mosquitos  are  said  to  breed  in  ma- 
larial conditions,  and  for  the  purpose 
of  absorbing  the  malaria.  Flies  do  not 
exist  except  in  conditions  of  ferment, 
and  are  of  greatest  service  in  carrying 
it  away.  Roaches  are  splendid  scaven- 
gers, and  are  a result,  and  not  a cause, 
of  unclean  conditions.  Our  warfare 
should  be  waged  against  unclean 
and  inharmonious  conditions,  and  not 
against  the  purifiers  and  harmonizers 
of  the  conditions. 

It  is  not  a difficult  matter  to  rid 
one’s  self  of  repulsions  if  the  point-of- 
view  is  changed.  I presume  that  the 
most  generally  detested  creature  that 
is  not  altogether  deadly  in  its  venom  is 
the  bedbug.  The  bedbug  is  more  of  a 
tradition  than  a fact,  and  many  of  those 
who  shudder  at  mention  of  him  have 
never  seen  one  of  his  kind.  I am  sure 


LOVE  QUALIFIED.  20Q 

that  none  of  his  enemies  have  much  if, 
any,  acquaintance  with  him,  as  to  the 
color  of  his  eyes,  his  habits  of  thrift, 
his  amiability  in  his  family  and  other 
qualities  that  serve  to  make  a creature 
attractive  and  respectable  within  his 
sphere. 

The  truth  about  this  much  despised 
creature  is  that  he  is  useful  as  a warn- 
ing against  unclean  conditions,  and  his 
odor  and  his  bite  are  his  notes  of  warn- 
ing. Instead  of  filling  one’s  self  with 
a feeling  of  repulsion  or  anger  or  any 
other  emotion  that  affects  the  free  cir- 
culation of  the  blood,  and  relaxes  and 
disorders  the  tissues  of  the  body,  at  sight 
or  mention  of  a bedbug,  the  discovery 
should  elicit  the  expression,  “Thank 
you  for  the  information.”  If  it  should 
happen  in  one’s  own  house,  no  hidden 
crack  nor  corner  should  escape  an  over- 
hauling to  get  rid  of  the  cause  of  the 
bedbug’s  warning;  or,  if  it  should  hap- 
pen in  a hotel,  there  should  be  a change 
of  hotel. 


210 


HAPPINESS. 


Mention  is  made  of  mosquitos  and 
roaches  and  bedbugs  in  this  connec- 
tion, not  for  the  purpose  of  degrading 
the  feeling  of  love  by  applying  it  to 
things  that  are  disagreeable,  no  matter 
what  their  mission  of  usefulness,  but  to 
put  stress  upon  the  fact  that  one  can- 
not afford  to  hate  anything.  It  is 
especially  useful,  in  seeking  to  change 
the  point-of-view,  to  consider  the 
greatest  of  causes  of  repulsion  in  order 
to  more  easily  reach  the  lesser  causes, 
for  the  lesser  fade  of  themselves  by  the 
removal  of  the  greater. 

If  you  can  learn  not  to  hate  a bed- 
bug, to  thank  a roach  for  informing 
you  of  unclean  conditions  and  to  endure 
mosquitos,  you  are  pretty  sure  to 
modify  all  prejudices  by  thus  doing. 


LAST  SOMETIMES  FIRST. 


It  is  my  own  habit  to  read  the  last 
chapter  of  a book  first  and  if  the  sum- 
mary of  its  contentions  and  deductions, 
which  are  sure  to  be  found  in  the  clos- 
ing chapter,  interest  me,  I go  carefully 
through  the  book  with  the  author  to 
learn  how  he  has  reached  his  conclu- 
sions. I find,  upon  enquiry,  that  many 
others  do  the  same.  This  is  made 
necessary  because  of  the  vast  number 
of  books  that  are  published  and  the  im- 
possibility of  learning  by  other  than  the 
easiest  means  more  than  a small  pro- 
portion of  the  ideas  that  are  given  out 
each  year.  There  are  published,  yearly, 
in  English,  twenty  to  thirty  thousand 
volumes  of  new  matter,  or  new  arrange- 
ments or  new  editions  of  old  matter,  so 
that  to  read  carefully  only  a catalogue 


211 


212 


HAPPINESS. 


of  them  would  be  a considerable  task 
for  the  ordinary  reader. 

This  being  the  closing  chapter  of  my 
book,  and  being  especially  possessed  of 
my  subject  and  desirous  of  being  under- 
stood, I may  be  pardoned  for  offering 
a brief  syllabus  of  my  effort  as  a bene- 
diction. 

I have  endeavored  to  show  that 
fearthought  is  the  arch-enemy  of  civil- 
ized man.  Through  the  fears  of  his 
progenitors,  it  is  the  cause  of  the  weak- 
nesses he  inherits;  and  through  his  own 
permission,  it  is  also  the  cause  of  his 
personally  acquired  ill  health,  ill  suc- 
cess, discontent  and  unhappiness.  Fear- 
thought,  however,  can  be  eradicated 
from  the  habit-of-thought  of  even  the 
most  timid  persons,  who  are  cursed  by 
the  hereditary  affliction  of  fear,  or  by 
their  own  weak  habit-of-thought,  by 
persistent  counter-suggestion,  as  soon 
as  they  are  convinced  of  the  possibility 
of  freedom,  and  have  thereby,  learned 
the  profitable  point-of-view  regarding 


LAST  SOMETIMES  FIRST.  213 

it.  I have  shown  that  forethought  be- 
comes strong-thought  as  soon  as  fear- 
thought,  or  weak-thought,  is  separated 
from  it;  that  the  condition  of  harmony 
which  is  created  by  the  eradication  of 
fearthought,  is  the  normal  condition  in 
civilized  nature;  that  growth  is  imme- 
diate and  strong  within  the  harmonic 
atmosphere  thus  created;  that  happiness 
is  the  certain  result;  and  that  fear- 
thought  and  its  various  expressions  are 
the  basic  deterrents  to  growth  and  hap- 
piness in  man.  That  God,  in  the  pro- 
cess of  Evolution,  has  developed  Man 
to  the  point  where  he  executes  the 
Higher  Law  of  Harmony  through  the 
exercise  of  Divine  Selection  in  modify- 
ing the  brute  law  of  “the  survival  of 
the  fittest  ” (or,  strongest),  and  there- 
by proves  the  “superiority  of  mind 
over  matter.”  That  God  has  created 
a partnership  betwreen  Growth  and  Man, 
which  is  properly  distinguished  as  the 
Man-Nature  partnership.  That  the 
functions  of  the  partners  are  clearly 


214 


HAPPINESS. 


defined  by  rigid  limitations;  Nature  do- 
ing all  the  growing  without  harmoniz- 
ing or  cultivating  anything;  while  Man 
performs  all  of  the  harmonizing  or  cul- 
tivating, but  none  of  the  growing.  That 
Man’s  only  method  of  harmonizing  or 
cultivating  is  through  learning  and  re- 
moving the  deterrents  to  growth.  That 
in  watering  plants,  Man  removes  the 
deterrent,  drouth.  That  in  building 
hot-houses,  Man  removes  the  deter- 
rent, cold.  That  in  oiling  machinery, 
Man  removes  the  deterrent,  friction. 
That  in  refusing  to  be  the  bondman  of 
fearthought  and  anger  and  worry,  Man 
escapes  the  only  deterrents  within  him- 
self, to  harmony,  health,  growth  and 
happiness.  And,  that  in  cultivating 
Appreciation  all  of  the  possibilities  of 
Happiness  are  opened  to  him. 

I have  tried  to  show  that  one  of  the 
great  deterrents  to  growth  and  the  ac- 
quisition of  happiness  is  nursed  by 
focussing  the  point-of-view  on  worn-out 
traditions,  instead  of  on  the  present  ac- 


LAST  SOMETIMES  FIRST.  2 15 


complishments  and  acceleration  of  pro- 
gress in  which  all  of  the  elements  of 
happiness  rest.  That  while  happiness 
is  possible  to  all  under  present  condi- 
tions, indications  point  to  the  possibil- 
ity, within  the  assured  possession  of 
surplus  wealth-of-means,  that  Altruism 
may  soon  “have  an  inning,”  during 
which  conditions  will  be  so  rearranged 
that  dire  poverty  and  unhappiness  will 
be  impossible  to  any  but  the  perverse. 
That  normal,  civilized  human  nature  is 
good  nature,  and  that  if  conditions  are 
intelligently  arranged  most  men  will 
eagerly  mold  themselves  into  good  men 
to  fit  the  conditions.  That  the  Material 
Age  has  become  so  rich  that  it  can  now 
afford  leisure  to  give  attention  to  the 
Higher  Self,  and  in  so  doing  will  soon 
refuse  to  permit  any  one  born  under 
the  prejudices  and  the  protection  of  the 
Nation — the  social  family — to  be  ignor- 
ant nor  idle  nor  poor;  that  the  era 
of  the  three  great  A’s — Appreciation, 
Attraction  and  Altruism — is  upon  us, 


2l6 


HAPPINESS. 


and  that  it  will  inaugurate  the  Age  of 
the  Higher  Self,  wherein  Man  will  real- 
ize that  he  is  not  simply  the  highest 
among  animals,  but  is  endowed  with 
divine  possibilities,  and  cannot  longer  be 
respectable  with  only  animal  character- 
istics. That  the  resetting  of  the  gauge 
of  respectability  rendered  necessary  by 
the  Awakening,  and  the  new  conditions 
that  must  grow  out  of  it,  will  be  above 
the  toleration  of  anything  that  is  un- 
altruistic,  as  surely  as  the  gauge  of  the 
present  is  above  the  toleration  of  petty 
thieving  and  convicted  perjury. 

There  is  not  only  hope,  but  there  is 
assurance , of  harmonic  conditions  in 
the  signs  of  the  times  and  in  the 
constantly  increasing  acceleration  of 
progress. 


A BEGINNING  AND  NOT  AN  END. 


It  is  argued  that  the  Stoics  and 
other  philosophers  of  ancient  Greece 
attained  the  perfection  of  self-control, 
and  successfully  suppressed,  and  even 
eliminated,  all  of  the  passions  and  de- 
sires which  so  commonly  dominate 
man,  and  attained  thereby  a state  of 
happiness  that  is  quite  unknown  in  the 
present  times  of  ostentation  and  ambi- 
tion ; but  that  the  result  was  a state  of 
lethargic  indifference,  that  became 
more  fatal  to  growth  and  progress  in 
the  end  than  any  known  condition  of 
tumult  and  competition  in  the  history 
of  the  race. 

This  is  undoubtedly  a just  arraign- 
ment of  the  result  of  the  Grecian  phil- 
osophical teachings  but,  at  the  same 
time,  the  reason  for  so  unhappy  a result 
is  not  difficult  to  find. 


217 


2l8 


HAPPINESS. 


The  Greeks  cultivated  self-control 
and  the  harmonic  conditions  growing 
out  of  it  as  an  end,  and  not  as  a pre- 
paratory means  to  growth.  They  pre- 
pared a weedless  and  wormless  soil 
within  the  mind,  but  in  it  planted  pop- 
pies, breathed  of  their  poisonous  per- 
fume, and  slept  the  sleep  of  indiffer- 
ence, which  leads  to  the  sleep  called 
death. 

Since  the  time  of  the  Stoics,  the 
world  has  been  told  by  the  God-Man 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  that  living  means 
growing,  that  true  happiness  is  gained 
only  through  works  in  the  service  of 
something,  that  the  necessary  attribute 
of  perfect  manhood  is  spontaneous  al- 
truism, and  that  there  is  no  other  road 
towards  growth,  refinement,  spirituality 
and  happiness  than  along  the  way 
made  easy  by  consistent  altruism. 

During  the  time  that  has  passed 
since  the  power  and  glory  of  Hellas 
began  to  wane,  mankind  has  had  ex- 
perience with  the  forces  of  nature  and 


BEGINNING  NOT  END.  219 

the  efficacy  of  machinery  to  teach  the 
great  universal  law  of  compensation, 
which  is  also  the  law  of  happiness. 
This  great  law  prescribes  that  there 
shall  be  no  balance  without  support  or 
motion,  no  poise  without  alertness,  no 
life  without  growth,  and  no  happiness 
without  service. 

Learning  a wise  lesson  from  the  law 
of  compensation,  man  has  come  to  ap- 
preciate the  value  of  a wormless  and 
weedless  soil,  but  he  has  learned  to 
plant  in  it  trees  that  bear  altruistic 
fruit,  instead  of  the  poppy  of  sloth  and 
indifference,  which  is  now  classed  as  a 
poisonous  weed ; he  has  learned  to 
clean  and  polish  the  journals  of  his 
engines  and  has  invented  balance 
wheels  to  regulate,  and  ball  bearings 
to  accelerate,  their  power ; but  not  for 
the  purpose  of  idleness. 

The  decadence  of  Greek  manhood 
was  not  the  result  of  culture,  but  the 
result  of  the  uses  to  which  it  was  put, 
and  hence  we  should  not  condemn 


220 


HAPPINESS. 


culture,  nor  cultivate  friction,  as  an  an- 
tidote for  decadence,  because  Greek 
civilization  did  not  defend  itself  against 
assault  and  decay,  but,  rather,  let  us 
emulate  the  good  they  achieved,  and 
cultivate  the  power  they  attained,  and 
use  them  as  a beginning  and  not  as 
an  end. 


APPENDICES. 


APPENDIX  A. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  FEAR  IN  DIS- 
EASE. 

By  Dr.  Wm.  H.  Holcomb. 

Our  sanitarians  are  doing  a good  work  in 
exploring  the  physical  causes  of  disease,  and 
endeavoring  to  protect  the  individual  and 
the  public  health.  But  there  is  a higher  and 
larger  sphere  of  causes  which  they  have  sel- 
dom penetrated,  and  of  whose  existence  even 
many  of  them  seem  to  be  ignorant.  I allude 
to  the  extraordinary  influence  of  affection 
and  thought,  or  of  emotion  and  ideas,  in  the 
causation  and  prevention  of  disease. 

The  body  is  a mirror,  in  which  all  the 
states  of  the  soul  are  reflected.  We  are 
familiar  with  the  wonderful  effects  of  the 
will,  the  passions,  the  emotions,  of  the  imag- 
ination, sympathy,  hope,  fear,  faith,  and  con- 
fident expectation  upon  the  physical  system. 
We  are  accustomed  to  regard  the  phenomena 
as  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  the  soul  can, 
under  certain  circumstances,  act  powerfully 
223 


224 


HAPPINESS. 


upon  the  body,  with  the  tacit  assumption, 
however,  as  a general  rule,  that  the  body 
executes  all  the  functions  by  chemical  or 
mechanical  law,  without  the  necessary  inter- 
vention of  any  mental  influences  whatever. 
This  is  the  great  illusion  of  the  materialist. 

Imagination,  intellect,  will,  emotion,  faith, 
hope,  expectation,  etc.,  are  only  states  or 
modes  of  the  soul’s  own  life,  and  they  are  in 
perpetual  activity,  whether  we  are  conscious 
of®  it  or  not.  The  operations  of  the  soul  of 
which  we  are  not  conscious,  are  almost  infi- 
nite in  comparison  with  the  very  small  por- 
tion of  them  which  comes  at  any  moment 
within  the  range  of  our  external  conscious- 
ness. The  soul  organizes  its  own  body  in  the 
womb  of  the  mother,  holds  all  its  parts  to- 
gether in  due  order  and  functional  activity 
during  life,  and  when  he  quits  it  at  death, 
its  material  tenement  falls  into  dissolution. 

The  mind  of  man  is  constantly  at  work, 
silently  pervading  every  tissue  of  his  body 
by  its  vital  influence,  repeating  itself  in 
every  function,  throbbing  in  the  heart, 
breathing  in  the  lungs,  reflecting  itself  in  the 
blood,  weaving  its  own  form  into  every  act 
of  nutrition,  realizing  its  own  life  in  every 


DR.  WM.  H.  HOLCOMB.  225 


sensation,  and  working  its  own  will  in  every 
motion.  The  power  of  the  mind  over  the 
body  indeed!  There  is  no  power  in  the  body, 
but  in  the  mind,  for  the  body  is  the  mind, 
translated  into  flesh  and  blood. 

When  a limb  is  broken  — the  bones  shat- 
tered, the  flesh  torn,  the  blood-vessels  sev- 
ered, the  nerves  lacerated,  what  can  the  sur- 
geon or  doctor  do  to  repair  the  injury?  A 
little  outside  mechanical  work.  He  ligates, 
he  stitches,  he  plasters,  he  fixes  the  parts  in 
apparatus  so  they  will  remain  motionless 
in  the  natural  position.  He  can  do  no 
more.  The  soul  which  creates  the  body  and 
keeps  it  in  health,  repairs  it  when  injured. 
By  her  own  occult  forces  she  regulates  the 
movement  of  the  blood  and  development  of 
nerve  power,  the  chemical  decomposition 
and  re-combination,  going  on  in  every  tissue, 
according  to  ideas  and  models  implanted 
upon  her  by  the  Divine  Mind,  the  Over- 
Soul  of  the  universe. 

The  old  writers  call  this  wonderful  power 
the  vis  medicatrix  naturi , the  curative  power 
of  nature.  Swedenborg,  for  whom  nature 
has  no  powers  underived  from  spiritual 
sources,  teaches  that  this  vital  power  is  the 


226 


HAPPINESS. 


soul  itself.  His  view  that  the  soul  itself  acts 
unconsciously  to  our  perceptions  in  the  de- 
velopment and  conservation  of  the  body  is 
advocated  by  Morell  in  his  “ Elements  of 
Psychology,”  and  is  highly  spoken  of  by 
Professor  William  B.  Carpenter. 

When  we  have  constructed  a true  psycho- 
logical pathology,  we  shall  understand 
clearly  why  and  how  it  is  that  fear  can  turn 
the  hair  gray  in  a single  night;  that  a 
mother’s  milk  can  be  poisoned  by  a mo- 
ment of  terror;  that  the  heart  may  be  para- 
lyzed by  a sudden  joy  or  sorrow;  that  dys- 
pepsia, paralysis,  and  many  other  diseases 
are  produced  by  mental  worry  and  fret  and 
the  brain-fag  of  overwork  and  anxiety.  Yea, 
we  will  understand  that  away  back  of  all 
physical  causation,  the  roots  of  our  disease 
originate  in  the  spiritual  conditions  of  the 
race,  in  our  false  religions,  our  false  philoso- 
phies, our  false  way  of  thinking,  our  false 
relations  to  God  and  each  other. 

The  most  extensive  of  all  the  morbid 
mental  conditions  which  reflect  themselves 
so  disastrously  on  the  human  system,  is  the 
state  of  fear.  It  has  many  degrees  or  grada- 
tions, from  the  state  of  extreme  alarm,  fright, 


DR.  WM.  H.  HOLCOMB. 


227 


or  terror,  down  to  the  slightest  shade  of  ap- 
prehension of  impending  evil.  But  all  along 
the  line  it  is  the  same  thing — a paralyzing 
impression  upon  the  centers  of  life  which 
can  produce,  through  the  agency  of  the 
nervous  system,  a vast  variety  of  morbid 
symptoms  in  every  tissue  of  the  body. 

We  have  very  seldom  reflected  upon  the 
fact  that  fear  runs  like  a baleful  thread 
through  the  whole  web  of  our  life  from  be- 
ginning to  end.  We  are  born  into  the  at- 
mosphere of  fear  and  dread,  and  the  mother 
who  bore  us  had  lived  in  the  same  atmos- 
phere for  weeks  and  months  before  we  were 
born.  We  are  surrounded  in  infancy  and 
childhood  by  clouds  of  fear  and  apprehen- 
sion on  the  part  of  our  parents,  nurses,  and 
friends.  As  we  advance  in  life  we  become, 
instinctively  or  by  experience,  afraid  of  al- 
most everything.  We  are  afraid  of  our 
parents,  afraid  of  our  teachers,  afraid  of  our 
playmates,  afraid  of  ghosts,  afraid  of  rules 
and  regulations  and  punishments,  afraid  of 
the  doctor,  the  dentist,  the  surgeon.  Our 
adult  life  is  a state  of  chronic  anxiety,  which 
is  fear  in  a milder  form.  We  are  afraid  of 
failure  in  business,  afraid  of  disappointments 


228 


HAPPINESS. 


and  mistakes,  afraid  of  enemies,  open  or 
concealed;  afraid  of  poverty,  afraid  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  afraid  of  accidents,  of  sickness, 
of  death,  and  unhappiness  after  death.  Man 
is  like  a haunted  animal  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave,  the  victim  of  real  or  imaginary 
fears,  not  only  his  own,  but  those  reflected 
upon  him  from  the  superstitions,  self-decep- 
tions, sensory  illusions,  false  beliefs  and  con- 
crete errors  of  the  whole  human  race,  past 
and  present. 

If  fear  produces  disease,  acute  or  chronic, 
suddenly  or  gradually,  through  the  correla- 
tions existing  between  the  spirit  and  the 
body,  how  can  there  be  a genuinely  and  per- 
fectly healthy  man  or  woman  in  the  world? 
There  is  none. 

That  fear  does  produce  all  kinds  of  dis- 
ease, has  been  frequently  observed  and  fully 
substantiated  by  the  medical  profession.  Dr. 
Tuke,  in  his  admirable  book,  “ Influence  of 
the  Mind  upon  the  Body,”  cites  well 
authenticated  instances  of  the  following  dis- 
eases as  having  been  produced  by  fear  or 
fright:  Insanity,  idiocy,  paralysis  of  various 
muscles  and  organs,  profuse  perspirations, 
cholerina,  jaundice,  turning  of  the  hair  gray 


DR.  WM.  H.  HOLCOMB. 


229 


in  a short  time,  baldness,  sudden  decay  cf 
the  teeth,  nervous  shock  followed  by  fatal 
anaemia,  uterine  troubles,  malformation  of 
embryo  through  the  mother,  and  even  skin 
disease  — erysipelas,  eczema,  and  impetigo. 

We  observe  in  this  list  that  fear  not  only 
affects  the  mind  and  the  nervous  and  mus- 
cular tissues,  but  the  molecular  chemical 
transformations  of  the  organic  network,  even 
to  the  skin,  the  hair,  and  the  teeth.  This 
might  be  expected  of  a passion  which  dis- 
turbs the  whole  mind,  which  is  represented 
or  externalized  in  the  whole  body. 

Dr.  Tuke  reiterates  the  fact  which  has 
been  so  frequently  observed,  that  epidemics 
owe  a great  deal  of  their  rapid  extension 
and  violence  to  the  panic  of  fear  which  ex- 
ists among  the  people.  When  yellow  fever, 
cholera,  smallpox,  diphtheria,  and  other 
malignant  diseases  obtain  a footing  in  a com- 
munity, hundreds  and  thousands  of  people 
fall  victims  to  their  own  mental  conditions, 
which  invite  the  attack  and  insure  its  fatal- 
ity. When  the  disease  was  new  and  strange, 
as  the  yellow  fever  was  to  the  interior  in  its 
visitation  in  1878,  when  the  doctors  were 
not  familiar  with  it,  the  nurses  not  trained 


230 


HAPPINESS. 


to  it,  the'people,  having  no  confidence  in  its 
management,  lost  hope,  their  fears  became 
excessive,  and  consequent  mortality  was 
frightful. 

How  does  fear  operate  upon  the  body  to 
produce  sickness?  By  paralyzing  the  nerve 
centres,  especially  those  of  the  vasomotor 
nerves,  thus  producing  not  only  muscular 
relaxation,  but  capillary  congestions  of  all 
kinds.  This  condition  of  the  system  invites 
attack,  and  there  is  no  resilience,  or  power 
of  resistance.  The  gates  of  the  citadel 
have  been  opened  from  within,  and  the 
enemy  may  enter  at  any  point. 

What  determines  the  specific  nature  of 
the  disease  which  attacks  a person  thus  pros- 
trated by  fear?  Men  are  frequently  pros- 
trated by  fear  in  storms  or  fire  or  earth- 
quakes or  accidents,  and  no  disease  results. 
It  is  because  they  have  been  not  thinking 
and  brooding  over  any  special  morbid  con- 
ditions. But  in  an  epidemic,  say  of  yellow 
fever,  the  subjects  connected  with  the  dis- 
ease are  strongly  pictured  on  the  mind. 
They  are  talked  of,  read  about,  discussed 
and  written  about,  until  the  mind  is",full  of 
images  of  fever,  delirium,  black  vomit,  jaun- 


DR.  WM.  H.  HOLCOMB. 


231 


dice,  death,  funerals,  etc.  When  such  is  the 
case,  no  microbes  or  bacteria  are  needed  to 
produce  an  outburst  of  yellow  fever.  The 
whole  mass  of  horrors  already  stamped  upon 
the  mind  is  simply  reflected  and  repeated  in 
the  body. 

“ As  a man  thinketh,  so  is  he,”  said  Solo- 
mon. Thoughts  become  things,  apprehen- 
sions take  form  and  substance,  and  lo!  the 
disease.  In  the  height  of  his  happiness  and 
prosperity,  Job  permitted  himself  to  brood 
in  silent  fear  over  the  possibility  of  losses 
and  misfortunes,  and  he  had  at  last  to  ex- 
claim, “ The  thing  which  I greatly  feared 
has  come  upon  me.” 

Sudden  and  great  fears  are  not  frequent. 
The  fears  of  every  day,  the  constant  appre- 
hensions and  anxieties  of  life,  which  are 
really  fears  of  impending  evil,  prey  upon 
our  vitality  and  lessen  our  power  of  resist- 
ing, so  that  any  passing  disease  may  be  pho- 
tographed on  our  minds  and  seen  upon  our 
bodies. 

Fear  is  itself  a contagious  disease,  and  is 
sometimes  reflected  from  one  to  another 
mind  with  great  rapidity.  It  needs  no  speech 
or  sign  to  propagate  it,  for  by  psycho- 


232 


HAPPINESS. 


logical  laws  we  are  just  beginning  to  com- 
prehend, it  passes  from  one  to  another,  from 
the  healthy  to  the  sick,  from  the  doctor  or 
the  nurse  to  the  patient,  from  the  mother  to 
the  child.  Thus  malignant  influences  may  be 
cast  around  us  by  even  our  best  friends  and 
would-be  helpers,  under  whose  baleful 
shadow,  without  our  even  knowing  of  its  ex- 
istence, we  and  our  children  may  sicken  and 
die. 

The  summer  of  1888  was  signalized  by  a 
moderately  severe  epidemic  of  yellow  fever 
at  Jacksonville,  Florida,  and  a very  extens- 
ive epidemic  of  fear  throughout  the  South- 
ern states.  The  latter  disease  was  much 
more  contagious  than  the  former,  and  much 
less  amenable  to  treatment.  This  mental 
malady  visited  every  little  town,  village,  and 
railway  station,  and  kept  the  Fpeople  in  a 
chill  of  trepidation  for  many  weeks.  This 
causeless  and  senseless  terror  originated 
many  precipitate  and  unjust  measures  of  self- 
defense.  Under  its  influence  public  and 
private  rights  were  disrespected,  and  the 
panic  greatly  intensified.  In  a few  cases 
the  refugee  was  driven  from  the  door,  the 
hungry  left  unfed,  the  sick  unattended. 


DR.  WM.  H.  HOLCOMB. 


233 


There  was  exhibited  on  a small  scale,  here 
and  there,  that  same  principle  of  terror 
which  is  manifested  in  a burning  theatre,  on 
a sinking  ship,  or  in  a stampeded  army, 
when  brave  men  suddenly  become  cowards, 
and  wise  men  fools,  and  merciful  men 
brutes. 

Truly,  something  ought  to  be  done  for 
the  moral  treatment  of  yellow  fever. 

I will  relate  an  anecdote  of  Dr.  Samuel 
Cartwright,  of  Natchez,  Mississippi,  which 
furnishes  an  ideal  type  for  the  mental  treat- 
ment of  yellow  fever. 

It  was  away  back  in  the  thirties,  and  yel- 
low fever  was  prevailing  in  New  Orleans, 
and  the  places  above  it  were  in  a state  of 
watchful  fear.  A young  Northern  teacher, 
trying  to  return  home,  started  from  Wood- 
ville,  Mississippi,  and  arrived  at  Natchez 
about  midnight  in  a high  fever.  Dr.  Cart- 
wright was  immediately  called  in.  Early 
in  the  morning  he  summoned  the  officers  of 
the  hotel  and  all  the  regular  boarders  into 
the  parlor  and  made  them  a little  speech. 
“This  young  lady,”  he  said,  “has  yellow 
fever.  It  is  not  contagious.  None  of  you 
will  take  it  from  her;  and  if  you  will  follow 


234 


HAPPINESS. 


my  advice  you  will  save  this  town  from  a 
panic,  and  a panic  is  the  hotbed  of  an  epi- 
demic. Say  nothing  about  this  case.  Ignore 
it  absolutely.  Let  the  ladies  of  the  house 
help  nurse  her,  and  take  flowers  and  delica- 
cies to  her,  and  act  altogether  as  if  it  were 
some  every-day  affair,  unattended  by  dan- 
ger. It  will  save  her  life,  and  perhaps  in 
the  long  run  many  others.” 

It  was  agreed  to  by  all  but  one  per- 
son— a woman,  who  proceeded  to  quaran- 
tine herself  in  the  most  remote  room  of  the 
establishment.  The  young  teacher  got  well, 
and  no  one  was  sick  in  the  house  but  the 
self-quarantined  woman,  who  took  yellow 
fever  from  fear,  but  happily  recovered. 

By  his  great  reputation  and  his  strong 
magnetic  power,  Dr.  Cartwright  dissipated 
the  fears  of  those  around  him,  and  prevented 
an  epidemic.  For  this  grand  appreciation 
and  successful  application  of  a principle  — 
the  power  of  mind  and  thought  over  phys- 
ical conditions,  a power  just  dawning  on  the 
perception  of  the  race — he  deserves  a nobler 
monument  than  any  we  have  accorded  to 
heroes  and  statesmen. 

The  sanitarians  of  the  present  day  would 


DR.  WM.  H.  HOLCOMB.  235 


think  on  the  contrary  that  Dr.  Cartwright 
was  worthy  of  condemnation  and  imprison- 
ment. Dr.  Cartwright,  however,'  honestly 
believed  that  yellow  fever  was  not  a conta- 
gious disease.  At  that  time  the  non-conta- 
gionists  were  numerous,  learned,  experi- 
enced, and  respectable.  The  contagionists, 
however,  finally  carried  the  day  in  the  face 
of  innumerable  evidences  of  non-contagion, 
which,  strangely  enough,  have  now  about 
ceased  to  exist.  Whether  they  transformed 
a non-contagious  into  a contagious  disease 
by  repeated  and  violent  asseverations,  which 
played  upon  and  hypnotized  the  professional 
and  public  mind,  is  a subtle  point  for  psycho- 
logical investigation,  not  likely  to  be  made 
by  the  present  generation  of  doctors. 

Can  a non-contagious  disease  become 
contagious  by  mental  action?  The  power 
of  fear  to  modify  the  currents  of  the  blood 
and  all  the  secretions,  to  whiten  the  hair,  to 
paralyze  the  nervous  system,  and  even  to 
produce  death  is  well  known.  Its  power  to 
impress  organic  changes  upon  the  child  in 
the  womb  through  the  mother’s  mind  is  well 
established.  When  yellow  fever  is  reported 
about  and  believed  to  be  imminent  and  con- 


236 


HAPPINESS. 


tagious,  fear,  combined  with  a vivid  imagina- 
tion of  the  horrors  and  woes  of  the  pest,  can 
precipitate  sickness  which  will  take  on  the 
form  and  color  present  to11  the  thought,  and 
yellow  fever  may  spread  rapidly  from  per- 
son to  person,  all  through  the  medium  of 
the  mind.  “ Everything,”  said  a great 
philosopher,  “was  at  first  a thought.” 

We  see  a non-contagious  disease  in  the 
very  process  of  transformation  into  a con- 
tagious one  in  the  case  of  pulmonary  con- 
sumption. It  was  observed  occasionally 
that  one  of  the  married  partners  who  had 
nursed  the  other  through  the  disease  fell  a 
victim  after  a while  to  the  same  malady. 
Doctors  and  people  began  to  suggest  con- 
tagion. The  cases  of  one  attack  following 
the  other  were  noticed  more  and  more,  and 
were  reported  in  the  medical  journals.  It 
was  spoken  of,  thought  of,  brooded  over. 
The  confirmatory  cases  were  all  carefully 
noted;  the  failures  to  infect  were  all  ignored, 
as  they  always  are  by  people  who  are  look- 
ing for  contagion.  The  germ  theory  has 
given  a great  impetus  to  the  idea  of  con- 
tagion. Dr.  Loomis  actually  classifies 
tuberculosis  among  miasmatic  contagious 


DR.  WM.  H.  HOLCOMB.  237 


diseases.  Fear  will  do  the  rest.  In  an- 
other generation  the  occasional  fact  will  be 
a common  fact,  and  in  still  another,  a fixed 
fact;  and  the  contagiousness  of  consumption 
will  be  enrolled  among  the  concrete  errors 
of  the  profession.  Such  has  probably  been 
the  genesis  of  all  contagious  diseases  in  the 
remote  past. 

Fear  being  recognized  as  a powerful 
cause  of  disease,  and  a direct  and  great  ob- 
stacle to  recovery,  a wise  sanitation  will  ex- 
ert itself  to  prevent  or  antidote  its  influences. 
To  eradicate  fear  is  to  avert  disease,  to 
shorten  its  duration,  diminish  its  virulence, 
and  promote  recovery.  How  shall  we  ac- 
complish it?  By  educating  the  people  up 
to  a higher  standard  of  life.  By  teaching 
them  a sounder  hygiene,  a wiser  philosophy, 
a more  cheerful  theology.  By  erasing  a 
thousand  errors,  delusions,  and  superstitions 
from  their  minds,  and  giving  instead  the 
light,  the  beauty,  and  the  loveliness  of  truth. 
There  is  a mental  and  moral  sanitation  ahead 
of  us,  which  is  far  more  valuable  and  desir- 
able than  all  our  quarantines,  inventions,  ex- 
perimentations, and  microscopic  search  for 
physical  causes. 


HAPPINESS. 


238 

I will  draw  the  picture  of  a sick  room  in 
charge  of  physicians  and  nurse,  by  whom 
this  enlighted  sanitation  has  been  ignored  or 
unheeded.  It  is  a chamber  of  fear,  soon,  in 
all  probability,  to  be  the  chamber  of  death. 
The  room  is  darkened,  for  they  are  afraid  of 
the  light,  that  emblem  of  God’s  wisdom 
which  should  shine  into  all  rooms,  except 
when  it  is  disagreeable  to  the  patient.  The 
ventilation  is  insufficient,  for  draughts,  you 
must  know,  are  very  dangerous.  The  friends 
have  doleful  faces,  moist  eyes,  sad  voices, 
which  reveal  danger  and  doubt,  and  they 
converse  in  subdued  whispers,  which  alarm 
and  annoy  the  patient.  The  nurse  and  the 
doctor  sometimes  talk  of  their  cases  before 
the  sick  man,  tell  how  very  ill  they  were, 
how  they  suffered,  how  they  got  well  miracu- 
lously, or  how  they  died.  The  sympathetic 
visitor  regales  his  hearers,  the  patient  in- 
cluded, with  his  or  her  knowledge  of  similar 
cases,  and  their  results,  the  great  amount  of 
sickness  prevailing,  and  the  success  or  ill 
success  of  tthis  or  that  doctor. 

They  all  agree  that  it  is  dangerous  to 
change  the  patient’s  linen,  dangerous  to 
sponge  the  body,  dangerous  to  give  him 


DR.  WM.  H.  HOLCOMB.  239 


cold  water;  milk  is  feverish,  meat  is  too 
strong.  A shadow  of  fear  seems  to  hang 
over  everybody.  The  pulse  is  counted,  the 
temperature  is  taken.  Nurse  or  nearest 
friend  wants  to  know  aloud  the  report  of  the 
watch  and  the  thermometer.  The  doctor 
answers  aloud,  and  all  look  grave.  And  so 
it  goes  on  day  after  day,  thoughts  and 
images  of  pain  and  sickness  and  danger  and 
death  being  impressed  and  reflected  upon 
the  mind  of  the  patient,  and  the  great,  sound, 
glorious  spirit  within  finds  it  impossible  to 
break  through  this  dense  atmosphere  of  ma- 
terial superstitions,  fear,  ignorance,  and 
folly,  and  restore  its  own  body  to  health  and 
happiness. 

The  true  sanitarian  will  remember  in  his 
treatment  the  tremendous  power  of  words 
and  ideas  upon  the  sick.  He  will  never  in- 
dicate by  his  language,  his  looks,  or  his  con- 
duct that  he  thinks  the  patient  is  very  ill. 
He  will  cleanse  his  own  mind  of  morbid 
fears  and  apprehensions,  and  reflect  the  stim- 
ulating light  of  hope  on  all  around  him. 
The  suppression  of  anxiety, ’’and  even  some- 
times of  sympathy,  is  necessary.  His  sick- 


240 


HAPPINESS. 


ness  should  not  be  discussed  before  the  pa- 
tient, or  any  other  case  of  sickness  alluded 
to.  The  doctor’s  opinion  of  the  case  should 
never  be  asked,  and  never  given  within  the  pa- 
tient’s hearing.  Erase,  as  far  as  possible,  all 
thoughts  of  disease,  danger,  or  death.  The 
sick-room  should  not  be  darkened  and  made 
silent.  It  should  be  made  cheerful  and 
natural,  as  if  no  sickness  existed.  It  should 
have  fresh  air,  and  cool  water,  and  the  fra- 
grance of  flowers,  instead  of  the  odor  of 
drugs.  Hope,  and  not  fear,  should  be  the 
presiding  genius  of  the  place. 

The  mind-curers  and  the  Christian  Sci- 
entists say  that  almost  all  acute  diseases  can 
be  cured  without  medicine  by  the  simple 
dissipation  of  fear  from  the  mind  of  the  pa- 
tient, of  his  friends,  and  of  his  doctor. 
Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  it  is  very  cer- 
tain that  when  an  epidemic  is  threatened  or 
prevailing,  the  people  who  are  constantly 
talking  about  and  discussing  the  disease,  the 
newspapers  which  daily  report  its  progress 
and  fatality,  and  the  doctors  and  nurses  who 
ventilate  their  experiences,  who  predict  evil, 
speak  ominously  and  enjoin  all  sorts  of  pre- 


DR.  W.  H.  HOLCOMB.’  241 

cautions,  are  themselves  fomenters  and  car- 
riers of  the  disease,  infectious  centers  to  the 
whole  community. 

Education  can  do  much,  but  it  is  useless 
to  expect  the  total  eradication  of  fear  with- 
out the  aid  and  guidance  of  the  religious 
principle.  Fear  is  the  cry  of  the  wounded 
selfhood  for  something  he  has  suffered  or 
lost,  or  is  about  to  lose.  “ Perfect  love  cast- 
eth  out  fear” — the  perfect  love  of  God  and 
the  neighbor.  He  who  is  in  bondage  to  the 
senses  has  everything  to  dread.  He  alone 
is  free  from  all  apprehensions  whose  heart 
and  mind  are  stayed  upon  the  living  God. 
He  truly  “sits  under  his  own  vine  and  fig- 
tree,  with  none  to  make  him  afraid.” 


APPENDIX  B. 


MR.  KENNAN’S  APPRENTICESHIP 
IN  COURAGE. 

Mr.  George  Kennan’s  great  work  in  Rus- 
sian exploration  and  in  the  investigation  of 
Russian  institutions  has  been  due  to  cer- 
tain qualities  of  character  which  impress 
every  one  who  knows  him  well.  Of  these 
qualities,  bravery  and  strength  of  will  are 
not  the  least  conspicuous.  In  his  conversa- 
tions with  me,  he  has  often  spoken  of  cer- 
tain things  in  connection  with  his  own  de- 
velopment and  training,  which  are  of  much 
interest.  Once  when  I spoke  to  him  of  his 
bravery  and  coolness  under  danger,  he 
said: — 

“ Many  things  which  have  been  signifi- 
cant and  controlling  in  what  I may  call  my 
psychological  life  are  wholly  unknown  to 
my  friends,  and  yet  they  might  be  made 
public,  if  you  wish.  For  instance,  as  I look 
back  to  my  boyhood,  the  cause  of  the  only 

242 


GEORGE  KENNAN. 


243 


unhappiness  that  boyhood  had  for  me  was  a 
secret  but  a deeply  rooted  suspicion  that  I 
was  physically  a coward.  This  gave  me  in- 
tense suffering.  I do  not  know  precisely  at 
what  time  I first  became  conscious  of  it,  but 
when  I peered,  one  day,  through  the  window 
of  a surgeon’s  office  to  see  an  amputation  I 
had  proof  of  my  fear.  One  of  my  play- 
mates had  caught  his  hand  between  two 
cog-wheels  in  a mill,  and  his  arm  had  been 
badly  crushed.  When  he  was  taken  to  the 
surgeon’s  office,  I followed  to  see  what  was 
going  to  be  done  with  him.  While  I was 
watching  the  amputation,  with  my  face 
pressed  to  the  glass  of  the  window,  the  sur- 
geon accidentally  let  slip  from  his  forceps 
the  end  of  one  of  the  severed  arteries,  and 
a jet  of  blood  spurted  against  the  inside  of 
the  window-pane.  The  result  upon  me  was 
a sensation  that  I had  never  had  before  in 
all  my  life, — a sensation  of  nausea,  faintness, 
and  overwhelming  fear.  I was  twenty-four 
hours  in  recovering  from  the  shock,  and 
from  that  time  I began  to  think  about  the 
nature  of  my  emotions  and  the  unsuspected 
weakness  of  my  character. 

“ I had  a nervous,  imaginative  tempera- 


244 


HAPPINESS. 


ment,  and  not  long  after  this  incident  I be- 
gan to  be  tortured  by  a vague  suspicion 
that  I was  lacking  in  what  we  now  call 
‘ nerve,’  that  I was  afraid  of  things  that  in- 
volved suffering  or  peril.  I brooded  over 
this  suggestion  of  physical  cowardice  until 
I became  almost  convinced  of  its  reality, 
and  at  last  I came  to  be  afraid  of  things 
that  I had  never  before  thought  about.  In 
less  than  a year  I had  lost  much  of  my  self- 
respect,  and  was  as  miserable  as  a boy  could 
be.  It  all  seems  now  very  absurd  and  child- 
ish, but  at  that  time,  with  my  boyish  visions 
of  travel  and  exploration,  it  was  a spiritual 
tragedy.  ‘ Of  what  use  is  it  to  think  of  ex- 
ploration and  wild  life  in  wild  countries,’ 
I used  to  ask  myself,  ‘ if  the  first  time  my 
courage  or  fortitude  is  put  to  the  test  I be- 
come faint  and  sick?  ’ 

“ I began  at  last  to  experiment  upon  my- 
self,— to  do  things  that  were  dangerous 
merely  to  see  whether  I dared  do  them;  but 
the  result  was  only  partially  reassuring.  I 
could  not  get  into  much  danger  in  a sleepy 
little  village  like  Norwalk,  Ohio,  and  al- 
though I found  I could  force  myself  to  walk 
around  the  six-inch  stone  coping  of  a bell- 


GEORGE  KENNAN. 


245 


tower  five  stories  from  the  ground  (a  most 
perilous  and  foolhardy  exploit),  and  go  and 
sit  alone  in  a graveyard  in  the  middle  of 
dark,  still  nights,  I failed  to  recover  my  own 
respect.  My  self-reproach  continued  for  a 
year  or  two,  during  which  I was  as  wretched 
as  a boy  can  be  who  admires  courage  above 
all  things  and  has  a high  ideal  of  intrepid 
manhood,  but  who  secretly  fears  that  he 
himself  is  hopelessly  weak  and  nerveless. 
There  was  hardly  a day  that  I did  not  say 
to  myself,  ‘ You  ’ll  never  be  able  to  do  the 
things  that  you  dream  about;  you  have  n’t 
any  self-reliance  or  nerve.  Even  as  a little 
child  you  were  afraid  of  the  dark;  you 
shrink  now  from  fights  and  rows,  and  you 
turn  faint  at  the  mere  sight  of  blood. 
You  ’re  nothing  but  a coward.’ 

“ At  last,  when  I was  seventeen  or  eight- 
een years  of  age,  I went  to  Cincinnati  as  a 
telegraph  operator.  I had  become  so  mor- 
bid and  miserable  by  that  time  that  I said 
one  day,  ‘ I ’m  going  to  put  an  end  to  this 
state  of  affairs  here  and  now.  If  I ’m  afraid 
of  anything,  I ’ll  conquer  my  fear  of  it  or 
die.  If  I ’m  a coward  I might  as  well  be 
dead,  because  I can  never  feel  any  self- 


246 


HAPPINESS. 


respect  or  have  any  happiness  in  life;  and 
I 'd  rather  get  killed  trying  to  do  something 
that  I ’m  afraid  to  do  than  to  live  in  this 
way.’  I was  at  that  time  working  at  night, 
and  had  to  go  home  from  the  office  between 
midnight  and  four  o’clock  A.  M.  It  was 
during  the  Civil  War,  and  Cincinnati  was  a 
more  lawless  city  than  it  has  ever  been 
since.  Street  robberies  and  murders  were  of 
daily  occurrence,  and  all  of  the  ‘night  men’ 
in  our  office  carried  weapons  as  a matter  of 
course.  I bought  a revolver,  and  com- 
menced a course  of  experiments  upon  my- 
self. When  I finished  my  night  work  at 
the  office,  instead  of  going  directly  home 
through  well-lighted  and  police-patrolled 
streets,  I directed  my  steps  to  the  slums 
and  explored  the  worst  haunts  of  vice  and 
crime  in  the  city.  If  there  was  a dark,  nar- 
row, cut-throat  alley  down  by  the  river  that 
I felt  afraid  to  go  through  at  that  hour  of 
the  night,  I clenched  my  teeth,  cocked  my 
revolver,  and  went  through  it,— sometimes 
twice  in  succession.  If  I read  in  the  morn- 
ing papers  that  a man  had  been  robbed  or 
murdered  on  a certain  street,  I went  to  that 
street  the  next  night.  I explored  the  dark 


GEORGE  KENNAN. 


247 


river-banks,  hung  around  low  drinking- 
dives  and  the  resorts  of  thieves  and  other 
criminals,  and  made  it  an  invariable  rule  to 
do  at  all  hazards  the  thing  that  I thought  I 
might  be  afraid  to  do.  Of  course  I had  all 
sorts  of  experiences  and  adventures.  One 
night  I saw  a man  attacked  by  highwaymen 
and  knocked  down  with  a slung-shot,  just 
across  the  street.  I ran  to  his  assistance, 
frightened  away  the  robbers,  and  picked 
him  up  from  the  gutter  in  a state  of  uncon- 
sciousness. Another  night,  after  two  o’clock, 
I saw  a man’s  throat  cut,  down  by  the  river, 
— and  a ghastly  sight  it  was;  but,  although 
somewhat  shaken,  I did  not  become  faint  or 
sick.  Every  time  I went  through  a street 
that  I believed  to  be  dangerous,  or  had  any 
startling  experience,  I felt  an  accession  of 
self-respect. 

“ In  less  than  three  months  I had  satisfied 
myself  that  while  I did  feel  fear,  I was  not 
so  much  daunted  by  any  undertaking  but  I 
could  do  it  if  I willed  to  do  it,  and  then  I be- 
gan to  feel  better. 

“ Not  long  after  this  I went  on  my  first 
expedition  to  Siberia,  and  there,  in  almost 
daily  struggles  with  difficulties,  dangers,  and 


248 


HAPPINESS. 


sufferings  of  all  sorts,  I finally  lost  the  fear 
of  being  afraid  which  had  poisoned  the  hap- 
piness of  my  boyhood.  It  has  never 
troubled  me,  I think,  since  the  fall  of  1867, 
when  I was  blown  out  to  sea  one  cold  and 
pitch-dark  night  in  a dismasted  and  sinking 
sailboat,  in  a heavy,  offshore  gale,  without  a 
swallow  of  water  or  a mouthful  of  food.  I 
faced  then  for  about  four  hours  what  seemed 
to  be  certain  death,  but  I was  steady,  calm, 
and  under  perfect  self-control.” 

— Kenyon  West. 


ADVERTISEMENT  OF  “ MENTICULTURE.” 


“ Menticulture  ” was  first  issued  in  a sufficiently 
modest  way.  It  described  a personal  experience 
which  has  been  of  inestimable  value  to  the  author. 
The  revelation  to  him  of  the  possibility  of  the  absolute 
elimination  of  the  seeds  of  unhappiness  has  changed 
life  from  a period  of  constant  struggle  to  a period  of 
security  and  repose,  and  has  insured  delightful  real- 
ities instead  of  uncertain  possibilities.  One  hundred 
and  fifty  copies  of  the  book  were  privately  printed, 
and  entitled  “TheAB  C of  True  Living.”  It  also 
carried  within  its  pages  the  title  of  “Emancipation.” 

The  suggestion  met  with  such  hearty  appreciation 
on  the  part  of  personal  friends  in  many  various  walks 
of  life,  that  a public  edition  was  proposed,  and  the 
name  of  "Menticulture,”  a name  that  had  to  be  coined 
for  the  purpose,  was  chosen  for  it. 

The  aptness  of  the  suggestion  has  been  evidenced 
by  the  approval  of  the  brotherhood  at  large  by  ap- 
preciative notices  in  many  of  the  leading  periodicals 
of  the  country,  by  the  receipt  of  more  than  a thou- 
sand personal  letters  by  the  author,  many  of  them  at- 
testing to  greatest  benefits  growing  out  of  the  new 
point  of  view  of  life  suggested  by  the  book,  and  by 
very  large  sales. 

One  gentleman— altruist — whose  name  is  W.  J. 
Van  Patten,  found  the  suggestion  contained  in  “Men- 
ticulture” so  helpful  to  himself  and  friends  that  he 
purchased  a special  edition  of  two  thousand  copies  of 
the  book  for  distribution  in  his  home  city  of  Burling- 
ton, Vermont,  one  to  each  household,  with  the  idea  of 
accentuating  the  suggestion  by  widespread  inter- 
discussion. The  special  Burlington  edition  has  an 
inset  page  bearing  Mr.  Van  Patten’s  raison  d’etre 
for  the  distribution,  which  reads  as  follows: 


PERSONAL  NOTE. 


Some  time  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1896  a friend 
sent  me  a copy  of  “ Menticulture.”  I read  it  with 
interest,  and  became  convinced  that  I could  apply  its 
truths  to  my  own  life  with  profit.  Experience  con- 
firmed my  faith  in  the  power  of  its  principles  to  over- 
come many  of  the  most  annoying  and  damaging  ills 
that  are  common  to  humanity. 

I procured  a number  of  copies  from  time  to  time 
and  gave  to  friends  who  I felt  would  appreciate  it. 
The  universal  testimony  to  the  good  which  the  little 
book  did,  and  the  new  strength  of  purpose  and  will  it 
gave  to  some  who  were  sore  beset  with  the  cares  and 
worries  of  life,  increased  my  interest  and  my  confi- 
dence in  the  truths  set  forth. 

I formed  the  idea  of  making  an  experiment  by  giv- 
ing the  book  a general  distribution  in  our  city,  to  see 
if  it  would  not  promote  the  general  good  and  happi- 
ness of  people. 

I wrote  to  the  author,  Mr.  Fletcher,  and  he  entered 
into  the  plan  very  cordially,  and  had  this  special  edi- 
tion prepared  for  me.  The  object  which  we  hope  to 
gain  is  to  turn  the  thoughts  and  purposes  of  those 
whom  we  reach  to  the  old  truths  taught  by  Christ,  and 
a determination  to  live  above  those  evils  which  do  so 
much  to  make  our  lives  unhappy  for  ourselves  and 
annoying  to  those  about  us. 

I would  ask,  therefore,  that  you  would  kindly  give 
the  book  careful  and  thoughtful  reading,  and,  when 
you  have  opportunity,  recommend  it  to  your  friends. 

W.  J.  Van  Patten. 


PERSONAL  NOTE. 


Mr.  Van  Patten  is  a prominent  manufacturer  of 
Vermont,  and  was  recently  Mayor  of  Burlington  for 
two  years.  He  is  also  prominent  in  the  Christian  En- 
deavorer  movement,  having  been  the  first  president 
of  the  United  Society,  and  being  at  present  one  of  its 
trustees,  as  well  as  the  president  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Club  of  western  Vermont. 

“Menticulture  ” has  found  favor  among  physicians, 
and  also  with  life-insurance  companies,  obviously 
because  of  the  live-saving  quality  of  the  suggestions 
contained  in  it. 


PRINTED  BY  R.  R.  DONNELLEY 
AND  SONS  COMPANY  AT  THE 
LAKESIDE  PRESS,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


Date  Due 


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Happiness 


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